Return of the Queen Revised
by Kaffe Kane
Summary: This is a pre, during, and after-Metroid Fusion story. Completed. RR if you like. The first installment of
1. Aku Hardy Special!

Thanks go to the authors of 'The Kihunters' and 'Show Off' for  
inspiring me to make a continuation of these two fanfics. I think  
that they both should be movies, they play out silver-screen material  
so wonderfully to me.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Prelude: Keaton's Discovery  
  
Chairman Keaton sits back in his office, tapping the desk with a pen  
while reviewing the data on Metroids that was taken from Laguna Ater  
before the revelation that he was the leader of the pirates. Keaton  
was thoroughly disapppointed that such a disaster occurred. He was  
lazily sifting through the records, noting that although this was from  
the pirates, it was surprisingly accurate, even down to the attack on  
a B.S.L. station that was on the planet SR388 nearly 11 years ago.  
  
The attack was on historical record. The last report sent was by  
the lone survivor, Royce Felder, on whom there was no information. She  
disappeared moments after the report was received by Alpha Centauri  
Station. The report detailed that the Metroids had overrun the station  
and mysteriously avoided attacking Royce the whole time.  
  
When Samus was assigned to SR388, she had two objectives: Eradicate  
the Metroids and locate Royce Felder. Neither objective was completed,  
as there was one hatchling remaining, in the care of Ceres station, and  
Royce was nowhere to be found.  
  
Being reminded of this attack and the mission that Samus had then,  
his thoughts trailed off to Royce Felder's mysterious appearance and  
disappearance.  
  
Where was she?  
Why didn't the Metroids attack her, too?  
Why couldn't Samus find her if there was no way to leave the planet?  
  
"Why, why, why?!" Keaton found himself shouting aloud. He knocked  
over a rubik's cube that he confisicated from Hardy yesterday, watched  
it hit the file cabinet to the left and plop into a garbage pail.  
  
"Why doesn't this make sense?!" And then it hit him. Samus was off  
her vacation (that was cut off by Ater) in a few hours. "Why don't I  
ask the two...no...-three- (he considered Ridley with a bit of   
agitation) people who can get to the bottom of this?"  
  
  
Chapter 1: Aku-Hardy Special!  
  
James Hardy was on a roll! Pastry or bread, buttered or frosted, he  
didn't care! He was hungry, always a distraction, but he didn't want  
to be knocked out of the elimination so close to becoming one of the  
Federation Tournament of Fighters finalists. His last opponent was  
part of the planet trade, (Ginyu Special Forces, even) and his name was  
Aku'Hokky. He had a smug look on his face thinking that his opponent  
was a mere hot air balloon. Not when Hardy was the star pupil of Ocho  
Heidegger, the master of Kar-Umo.   
  
Aku'Hokky had seen Hardy battle, and it was like watching a clumsy   
fat man try to squash a sumo wrestler to him. Still, he couldn't   
underestimate one thing. What if Hardy was holding back?  
  
Hardy leaped into the ring and landed feet first with a BOOM.  
  
"Alright, you tub of lard, let's see you beat a member of the mighty  
Ginyu Force!" He began a sequence of weird poses and ended looking like  
he was about to fall on his face. "AKU'HOKKY!"  
  
Hardy got into the Kar-Umo stance and stared at his opponent.  
  
"Blowhard, you're just an over-posing pansy." Aku'Hokky fell at this  
comment. Cheers were among the other fighters watching. ("Get   
'im, Hardy! Pummel that planet-razing scum into a pancake!")  
  
"Ergh, what did you SAY to ME?!" Aku'Hokky gets up and holds his   
hands behind and to his left, crossing his thumbs together. "You'll  
pay for insulting the Ginyu Force! Aku'Hokky Special!" He thrusts his  
linked hands forward with the palms flat out as a blast of energy sails  
toward Hardy, who blocks the attack and gets pushed back nearly to the  
edge of the ring before he starts to hit the blast right back to  
Aku'Hokky with a blur of sumo palm attacks, finishing with one last  
hard slap that sent the attack flying right into Aku'Hokky, who was  
flung far out of the ring and hit a wall.  
  
"And that's 100. I've mastered two techniques this match."  
  
"T...two?"   
  
"If you wanna see, then join the audience...poser." Samus and   
Houston watched the whole match, for what little of it there was.  
Ridley had just finished his battle with a Torizo that got too close to  
his mouth. The Torizo was badly burned, but still alive and able to  
walk to the hospital for treatment. Ridley looked at Samus and asked,  
  
"Why didn't you or Houston enter?" Samus looked over at Ridley with  
a weird glare.  
  
"Are you kidding? With or without our Power Suits we wouldn't stand  
much chance. Remember that guns and rockets aren't legal in the rules.  
But stuff like what you and Hardy have been pulling, that's just fine."  
  
"Are you insinuating that you aren't as good as everyone says you  
are?" Samus turns to face Ridley while Houston looks at Samus as  
though she was going to do something stupid, which, to his thinking,   
she does as she slams Ridley in the chest with her left fist. Ridley  
just cackles and looks down. "...I see your point. If you can't hurt  
me, then there's little chance that you -do- have in this." Houston  
sighs with relief. He didn't want to have a roasted sister, but  
apparently Ridley let her hit him as a demonstration of what she was  
saying to him.  
  
------------------------  
  
The beginning of the finals was drawing close. Hardy was in the   
first quarter-final match against Ridley. Houston looked at Samus to  
ask,  
  
"Why did you punch Ridley?" She looks at Houston and then at Ridley.  
  
"I was holding back. I really could have landed him on his rear.  
I just didn't enter because of my reputation. Too many would have  
given up."  
  
"Oh. I thought you really were that weak for a moment." Samus  
motions to knock Houston's lights out. "B-But then, I had asked   
because I thought you were holding back, also!" Samus lowers her fist  
and murmurs to Houston.  
  
"Another crack like that and I crack you." Houston gives off a  
nervous 'heh' and goes to watch Hardy and Ridley walk out to the  
tournament ring. The announcer prattles off to the audience for a  
minute or two while Ridley and Hardy stare each other down.  
  
"And now, the first quarter-final match of the Federation Tournament  
of Fighters! Hardy vs. Ridley...BEGIN!" Hardy gets into stance while  
Ridley gets ready to charge.  
  
"You know that I'm only going to fight fist-to-fist this match."  
Hardy looks at Ridley.  
  
"Don't put me at an advantage." Ridley didn't hear Hardy as he  
jumped forward while Hardy jumped to the side. Hardy then charges at  
Ridley and starts to slam him with a ton of sumo palm punches. Ridley  
waits out the gap between the assault and final blow and flies into  
the air.  
  
"You think that I'm putting you at an advantage! You can't fly, so  
we're even!" Hardy squats down momentarily and then leaps into the  
air and hits Ridley in the stomach with his balding head. Ridley's  
eyes seem to bulge and he lets out a squawk as he falls to the ring  
area, winded.  
  
"Now to show you my second new trick." Hardy puts his hands to the  
left side and crosses his thumbs. "AKU-HARDY SPECIAL!!!" Aku'Hokky,  
in the audience, falls over as Hardy messes up on the name. Hardy  
extends his hands and fires a blue beam of energy at Ridley, who tries  
to punch it, but misses hitting the beam an inch too high and lands   
outside the ring.  
  
"Ridley is out of the ring! Hardy advances to the semi-finals!"  
Ridley gets up, clutching gently at his now-tender stomach area.  
He looks at Samus and walks to her.  
  
"You know what? I think that you really -did- hit me back there.  
I'm starting to feel it, now...oough..." Samus and Houston look at  
each other and laugh just as a messenger arrives for the trio. 


	2. Enter the Queen

Chapter 2: Enter the Queen  
  
The lavender-skinned messenger walks up to Samus and Houston as though trying to be  
sneaky, and bellows out loud.  
  
"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"  
Samus and Houston jump, startled, and both hit the messenger in the face. The messenger  
gets up and grumbles.  
  
"Ugh...is this how you'll continue to treat The Kefka? You know, I'll always  
make a surprise appearance." Samus crosses her arms.  
  
"Bounty Hunters are meant to be jumpy. You never know when there's a gun at your back."  
Kefka laughs.  
  
"Gun? Samus, I'm a loose cannon!" Just then, Kefka turns into a cannon and fires a  
large iron ball at Ridley, who turns to face it too late and gets hit in the stomach again.  
(Poor Ridley.) "Ggh...VELVET SLIDING TROMBONES!!!" Kefka reverts to her normal form and hands  
Samus a disk. "From the Chairman. He says that you three are to see the contents of that disk  
the moment that you all get home...and...sorry about that, Ridley." Ridley could only manage a  
moan while rubbing his stomach. Kefka disappears in a poof and a cracking noise.  
  
"Hey, Houston? Why not check that while I take Ridley to Old Bird? Catch us up when we  
get back." Houston shrugs as they go thier separate ways. Samus knocks on the door to Gul'Gen's  
chamber on the station and waits for it to open. Nothing. She knocks again. Nothing.  
Raps "Shave and a Haircut" on the door. Bangs two times. And then stops.  
  
"Wait...Samus, can't you hear him meditating?" Samus looks up at Ridley.  
  
"Huh?" She puts an ear to the door and hears a meditation chant, sure enough. But a  
moment later, she turns to face Ridley and the door slides open. "Well, that answered how we're  
going to get to him."  
  
"You mor gur goy fie die tsao...you mor gur goy fie die tsao...you mor gur goy fie die   
tsao..." Gul'Gen chants while in a cross-legged sitting pose, floating in the air.  
  
"Old Bird?" WHAP! Samus gets hit on the head by Gul'Gen's cane as it floats to him.  
He grabs the cane and stands using it as a support. "Old Bird, have you been-"  
  
"Yes, trying to look into other situations, but something just keeps drawing me to a  
batty old chi wizard...one more thing...oops, uh...why is Ridley with you?" Samus looks back to  
see Ridley standing in the doorway.  
  
"Well...I was wondering if I had accidentally jinxed him during the tournament. I   
punched him in the stomach and since then he's been hit there three times." Old Bird twiddles  
with part of his moustache. "And hit there hard, too."  
  
"...Hmmmm...no, Samus-san. You didn't jinx Ridley, he just had a sharp stroke of bad  
luck...which you somehow predicted. Your blow to him there was light, right?"  
  
"Yes." Samus had it click now.  
  
"Which means that you knew that he was going to suffer far worse there than he expected."  
  
"Oh. If that's all, then we'll be on our-"  
  
"One more thing." Samus stifled a chuckle. "Watch out for metroids." This last bit  
shocked and at the same time confused Samus. She was busy wondering what he meant when they  
both went into Samus and Houston's chambers, Samus watching Houston look at the display in   
horror. She walked up to the display to take a closer look at what was on the disk.  
  
Information about Metroids galore. And highlighted was a snippet about Royce Felder and  
the report about the Metroid attack 11 years ago.  
  
"Royce Felder...that name rings a bell. Wasn't she the person that I was told to  
locate and return to the Federation?" Houston shook his head and Ridley tried to sit comfortably  
on Samus' couch.  
  
"Y...yes. You said that aside of giving the hatchling to B.S.L., the mission was a  
failure. You couldn't find Royce and the hatchling was still a Metroid, so..."  
  
"This couch is too small." Samus looks at Ridley and then back to the display.  
  
"It says here that Royce was never attacked by any of the Metroids. She sent the report  
and then vanished." Ridley fell asleep sitting down while Samus pored over the data that was on  
the disk.  
  
-------------------  
  
"And Keaton wants us to WHAT?!" Samus looked at Hardy, livid with frustration.  
  
"He wants you to try to find Royce...again...but this time should be easier, right? You  
have Houston and Ridley to accompany you." Samus looked around for something to throw, but   
instead goes to don her Power Suit, seeing that Houston was already inside his before she got  
back to thier quarters.  
  
"Well, if he says so, he says so...and I can only think of one place to look first.  
Somewhere around SR388. Probably Chauda Station first, which orbits the planet." Samus, Ridley,  
and Houston head for Samus' ship and have an uneventful flight until halfway to SR388, a Lirran  
salvage vessel asked for clearance. And that was red tape to get tangled into.  
  
-------------------  
  
A woman walks along an open area on the surface of the planet SR388. Her red hair  
reached in flat strands to her shoulders as she looks up at the many little blobs of X floating  
around. Ever since all the Metroids of SR388 were gone, the X began a massive population  
explosion. And she knew that the X were far worse that Metroids. They would disrupt and then  
mimic an ecosystem. She also knew that B.S.L. would pick onto the intensified bio-activity and  
investigate. But the little 'present' that she left for the X before reaching the surface would  
hopefully stem the tide and re-regulate the planet. An X sails straight at her thinking that she  
wasn't what its mortal enemy was. Catching and then squeezing the X, it seemed to be absorbed  
into her. She then lets off a laugh, sinister and frozen as the vacuum of space. She was   
Royce Felder, Queen Metroid. 


	3. Retrieval

Chapter 3: Aboard the Station  
  
Samus and the others had finally arrived at Chauda Station after having  
to merit clearance of a Lirran scrap dealer -and- escort the merchant  
back to Alpha Centauri. They had a surprise pirate attack, but it was  
too small and disorganized. Probably caught wind of an unarmed   
salvager passing by, not expecting an escort. After that was out of  
the way and being given a few missile tanks for thier trouble, they  
headed to thier original destination. They weren't even given a stop  
for clearance until they left the docking bay. Ridley was the least of  
thier worries right now. They were upset because of thier findings  
about activity on the surface of SR388.  
  
"Is it Metroids?" The scientist being asked looks at Samus and then  
walks to a display.  
  
"I wish that it were...we don't know what these things are. And there  
is a woman standing amongst them...I-it can't be...Royce?!"  
  
-------------------  
  
Samus tried to bring the ship as close as possible to Royce was. She  
was standing in a relatively clear spot, one where seldom a gelatinous  
blob would pass. Royce was hurriedly escorted in and the ship left  
without a hitch.  
  
'But she doesn't know that she's carrying the one who she so-said  
defeated. I had faked my death to escape that one last missile that  
would have really killed me. While she had her back turned and was  
leaving with my last child, I transformed and began to hunt those  
infernal blobs with a passion. But thier breeders were still more  
elusive than my predatorial talent. They fear us, the Metroids. They  
went into hiding and tried to disguise themselves as something that  
they thought would kill us. They have found the one...they just need  
her...Samus Aran...' Royce sat off in a corner, scowling at Samus the  
whole time.   
  
'But she was cautious, and so am I. I will not let them have her.   
They will not destroy us. Her or me. I hate to rely on an enemy. I  
hate it more than what any of my children felt. But she wasn't a  
totally heartless person. My baby...she wanted to save my baby from  
the pirates...I don't know what to think of her, should I hate her  
even more than now for taking my child to be in a sterile tomb, or  
should I secretly thank her for trying to preserve us?' Royce got up  
and began to pace back and forth.  
  
'I don't know what to think. Who is her enemy? Who is she a savior  
of? What is her motive? What does she feel?' Royce stopped and   
looked at Samus, who returned glance.  
  
"...What is it, Royce?" Royce stiffened.  
  
"...Thanks..." Royce's single word of thanks confused Samus. What was  
she being thanked for? Getting her away from those...those...floating  
things? Yeah, maybe she was being thanked for escorting Royce off of  
that hot bed of actions unknown.  
  
"You're welcome...I guess..."  
  
-----------------  
  
Everyone aboard the station was relived to see that the mission was a  
success. Royce was back in the Federation fold again, and Samus and  
the others were about to take Royce to Alpha Centauri so that she  
could be questioned as to why she disappeared after the report 11  
years ago.  
  
"Oh, Royce?" Samus moved to ask before the ship left. She set it  
onto auto-pilot.  
  
"What is it?" Samus holds out a recorder.  
  
"The Federation Police are lazy, so if I give Hardy a recorded  
interrogation, they will bypass interrogating you personally. How  
does that sound? You look nervous about sitting in front of Hardy  
and telling the truth there." Royce looks at Houston and Ridley.  
  
"If they leave. I want this to be private." Samus looked behind  
Ridley and said to them,  
  
"There's a room that you boys can sit in while Royce is questioned.  
Behind Ridley is where the door is." Houston opens the door. A  
modestly sized bedroom on a spaceship this 'small' seemed impossible.  
Apparently Samus had room for everything that she needed, and a few  
things that she wanted. Houston and Ridley walk inside and the door  
shuts behind.  
  
"Now..." Samus clicks the recorder on. "Tell me, why did you vanish  
from the B.S.L. lab that was on the planet SR388 at the time after  
giving a status report that said that the station was attacked?"  
  
"...Here's why. The Metroids avoided me because...I, too, am a   
Metroid. In fact, I am Queen Metroid." Samus snickers and then   
starts to laugh.  
  
"Queen Metroid is dead! I'm Marie Antoinette if you really are!"  
Royce frowns.  
  
'So, you don't believe me, do you? I'd like to strangle you and drain  
you into a pile of dust, but that won't keep you alive. You'd still  
be safe from the parasites, though.'  
  
"A-anyway, let's give out a real reason, now." Royce gives a sharp  
look and says in monotone,  
  
"I gave you the real reason. You don't want me to make you believe  
me by force." Samus holds back on laughing this time, but still can't  
believe what Royce is saying. If she really -were- Queen Metroid, why  
doesn't she just attack them then and there?  
  
"Alright...next question. How did you elude me on my mission to find  
and return you to the Federation?" Royce loosens slightly and   
answers.  
  
"You didn't know that you found me in the first place. While on your  
mission, whatever it was, all Metroids save one were 'killed'. I   
would rather say that two survived." Samus waved a hand.  
  
"It was an assignment that I was reluctant to take. I knew how much  
danger going after Metroids was. Besides...-if- you really are Queen  
Metroid, then my mission was something that I should have refused."  
Royce stands up angrily.  
  
"If, huh? So you still don't believe me. You think that it's a  
lame scapegoat that no one, not even Hardy would buy? I faked death  
to escape you, Samus. You actually wanted to kill me. Why don't you  
want to now? Well?" Samus sets the recorder down.  
  
"If you really are Queen Metroid, why didn't you make up a scapegoat  
to hide yourself? Or why didn't you assault me while I am alone here  
with just you?" Royce moves to the back of the ship.  
  
"I...don't know what to think of you. You kill all but two Metroids,  
and take one of them with you just because it thinks that you're its  
mother. And then you try to save it from the pirates. I don't  
understand you." Samus turns off the recorder and puts it in a   
pocket, walking back to check on the distance between them and Alpha  
Centauri.  
  
"Then we don't understand each other."  
  
-------------------  
  
Both Samus and Royce were bothered with each other by the time that they  
got out of the ship. Hardy greeted them all and accepted the recording  
along with Samus telling Hardy that it was all that she could get from  
Royce.   
  
'A job well done? We'll soon see.' Samus thought... 


	4. The Warnings Unheeded

Chapter 4: The Warnings Unheeded  
  
Samus had been ready for a new mission for a few hours now. Why Hardy  
or Keaton hadn't given her, Houston, or Ridley an assignment was just  
starting to aggravate her. She had been walking over to Hardy's office  
to get to the bottom of this since 10:21AM. Once she had gotten to  
the area where his office is, she heard shouting and bellowing and   
opened the door to see Keaton in an unmistakeable yelling spree   
directed at Royce. Hardy was halfway across the room and turns to see  
who just came in. Seeing Samus, he shoos her out and leaves the room  
himself.   
  
"Sorry about this. But as you can see-" Samus crossed her arms and  
leaned against the wall.  
  
"What I saw in there is a Keaton style interrogation. The other method  
is chains with lethal electro-torture, I believe?" Hardy remembered   
the time that Ridley told the three of them just what he went through   
before Hardy's rescue that caused a small rebellion on Alpha Centauri.  
  
"Uh...yeah. Anyway, I was going to ask her a few questions of my own  
that I had ready to ask after listening to that recording that you  
gave me and...Keaton bursts in with two officers and demanded that  
Royce be officially interrogated and incarcerated later. I haven't  
been able to do anything else edge-wise." Samus and Hardy both sigh  
in unison. Keaton had gone overboard again. The third time in nearly  
a year. "He thinks that Royce is a threat because she's a Metroid."  
  
"This isn't true. How come I'm still alive, then?" Gul'Gen stops near  
them.  
  
"Maybe it's because you soon won't be."  
  
-----------------------  
  
Samus didn't understand Gul'Gen's latest cryptic statement. It was  
almost eerie to her. First she was told to beware of Metroids, and she  
discovers that Royce is Queen Metroid, now she has a boggling death  
omen to worry about, and she doesn't even know what would kill her.  
Houston came into the chambers while Samus was holding a coffee cup and   
running her left index finger across the rim in thought, and told her  
that she had a job from B.S.L.  
  
"It just said: 'Come to Chauda Station...alone.'" Samus immediately  
went for her Power Suit and left Alpha Centauri to head to SR388 again.  
  
-----------------------  
  
Royce looks at Keaton with her calm face. She could maintain a civil  
tongue and hold down her predatorial instincts while in her current  
form, but this brown-robed jumping bean was beginning to irritate her.  
She was so tempted to attack him, but putting the Federation in chaos  
would only mean that Samus would incessantly hunt her.  
  
"Listen. I came out of hiding to protect Samus from them." Keaton's  
face couldn't get more like a half-ripened tomato in color.  
  
"BUT WHO ARE 'THEM'?!"  
  
"I...can't easily describe them, and they don't have a name. They want  
Samus, and they've begun their plan of action. You must let me go to  
SR388, and now." Hardy enters the office and whispers to Keaton.  
  
"W...what?! I DIDN'T CLEAR THAT MISSION FOR SAMUS!!! HARDY! YOU GO  
AND CALL HER BACK AT ONCE!!! AND NO EATING STOPS, EITHER!!!"  
  
'She's falling for the trap they've set. There's nothing more that I  
can do.' Royce walks out silently after Keaton rushes away, with the   
officers he brought as backup against Royce following him to wherever  
he went. Royce had gone in the opposite direction, and escaping from  
a self-styled way out, the same way she came in when Hardy asked her  
for a few 'polite' questions. Too bad that Keaton spoiled Hardy's fun.  
Too bad that Royce didn't have time to find the one parasite that had  
got to Chauda and hid among the humans so that it could lure Samus to  
SR388 and she would be infected, too. An army of perfect Samus Aran  
clones...it was the perfect way to overwhelm Royce and her children.  
The perfect way to overwhelm any foe. The parasites were taking their  
one chance at becoming...  
  
Perfect...  
  
----------------------  
  
Note: I don't have Metroid Fusion yet, so I'm going to hold off until I  
get it and run through its story. Although I -did- play it at Wal-Mart.  
It's so neat-o-jet! 


	5. Big Fat Adventure

Chapter 5: Big Fat Man's Big Fat Adventure  
  
It had been two days since Samus had gone to Chauda Station. Why   
hadn't she come back yet? There was no response from the station,  
either. Keaton's suspicions that Royce was telling the truth, and  
that a plot to use and/or destroy Samus was afoot on SR388 was set  
aside momentarily after she came into his office wearing an odd new  
Power Suit. It was aqua green with patches of yellow, and looked  
really rubbery from the texture of it. Other attacks from lifeforms  
recently dubbed 'X' were being reported in several areas of B.S.L.  
jurisdiction. Chauda was at the highest risk and no one knew what  
was happening there. Keaton had received word that Chauda had   
suffered an explosion inside the Quarantine Bay an hour ago, and that  
Samus was ready for action again. He had sent her two days ago,  
moments after that report. Still no word from Samus or the NavCom AI,  
Adam Malkovich. He was tempted to send Houston or Ridley, but they  
would be more hindrance than help. Samus was now immune to the X,   
whereas the other two weren't. He decided to call them in and send  
them on a different mission after the back of his mind had nagged him  
enough times to send them away so that they wouldn't catch a bad drift  
of what was going on.  
  
When Houston and Ridley arrived, he didn't expect Royce or The Kefka to  
be with either of them, but both were there, too. It was like Samus  
had gathered her own posse of team members and yet she had to go alone  
on this mission, just like twice before she had to go alone.   
  
"Now...I suppose you've all gathered here to ask me about Samus, but I  
have other plans for you aside of being interrogators. She -will-  
return from her mission, it is just that she hasn't yet." Kefka   
uncrosses her arms and lets her billowing red and green (with yellow  
trim) robes slowly wave back and forth.  
  
"Windbag, cut to the chase." This didn't strike Keaton as an insult  
at all. Kefka was worse than Ridley when it came to starting (or even  
finishing) an argument. He had to let it be or else the mission would  
turn into stopping Kefka from blowing Keaton's head off with a spell.  
Yet Kefka was never one to stay mad for long, turning vengeance into a  
silly joke that only the person she was mad at becomes white as a ghost  
toward.  
  
"Yes, well..." Keaton clears his throat and hands Houston a folder.  
"Your mission is inside that. I'll say this only once. Your  
destination is Karru Station." Houston looks up and drops the folder.  
  
"B-but, Keaton...that's...that's a base of the planet trade!" Keaton   
looks at some other papers.  
  
"Oh? Afraid of a few Icers, are we? You do know that they want to  
attack two of our closest allies, the Chozo and Torizo, so that they  
can do what the Space Pirates couldn't as well as have twelve planets  
ready for selling to -anyone-? It's all in that folder. You're to  
report to Hardy for your incognito...and, Kefka..."  
  
"Hm?" Keaton looks up from the papers at Kefka.  
  
"Don't go with them, you're too well-known." Kefka frowns and   
disappears while Houston, Ridley, and Royce head off to Hardy.  
They receive a few weird-looking outfits, like armor, and are  
escorted to the docking bay. Hardy takes the time on the elevator to  
tell them about the information.  
  
"We've been hearing about this attack for some time now, and think that  
the planet trade will act soon. They want to catch the Federation off  
guard, but we know that they're dumber than Space Pirates. Stronger,  
yes, but dumber. And I'm going with you guys, too. They're pretty  
extreme with the martial arts for some of them...especially the elites.  
The Ginyus you don't need to watch out for. They're easy to spot,   
anyway. They have a symbol on their armor...and they goof off a lot  
more than I do." Houston looked at what he was wearing and saw a   
symbol on his armor.  
  
"Hardy...you've -got- to be joking...I'm not gonna be up to that kind  
of snuff." Ridley laughs at Houston and taunts that he's gotta act  
like a Ginyu Force member. Posing, acting stupid, and looking all-  
around weird.  
  
"Okay...Houston, you -do- know how to goof off, as well as be serious,  
right? Can you strike a pose for me?" Houston almost trips at Hardy's  
question. His face goes to an extremly psychotic look as he points to  
his head and himself.  
  
"ME?! POSE?! YOU'VE GOTTA BE JOKING!!!" Hardy claps.  
  
"That's -PERFECT-!! You've got the absurdity and everything!" Houston  
looks at Hardy, bewildered. He was just recently about to throttle  
Hardy, and now he's being congratulated? This was gonna be one weird  
job...no doubt of that.  
  
-----------------------  
  
Karru Station. Not a worse place in the boundaries of the Milky Way  
existed. Not even, much to certain people's ironies, the capital planet  
of the region, Freiza. Several sectors of the station were rendered  
offline and unusable by countless battles between the planet trade and  
the Torizo for this station. The battles for Karru ended when the  
Kihunters approached Earth for a final battle with the Federation. The  
planet trade had thought that the Chozo and Torizo, although reunited,  
was heavily weakened by the Pirates, the Kihunters, and Laguna Ater's  
stint with the Pirates on Acuar. That was the first error. The  
second was that 'Federation spies' had caught wind of the genocide plot.  
And the members of the planet trade were ready for another attack. That  
never came, but a few new faces, including a Ginyu named Armstrong A.  
Houston, had arrived.  
  
What was left of the station was extremely red-light and crime riddled.  
The Ginyus never cared about anything except striking terror with  
ridiculous flair into their objectives. So their time was spent training,  
posing, and goofing off. Houston was trying to picture a pose that would  
make people think that the Ginyus were utterly stupid. Not that there  
weren't people who already thought that. Almost everyone was already  
convinced that Ginyu Special Forces meant a bunch of super-powered  
retards. Yet for some odd reason they were like Hardy, they always came  
through.  
  
Hardy had other plans. His first objective? Find a Subway restaurant  
that didn't have a ho obsessed with scoring a fat person. He was scared  
of this place sometimes, wondering why he came here. But then he saw a  
familiar face...or rather, familiar rotundness. At almost one and one-  
half times Hardy's width was a man in a green army general uniform. His  
head was bald on the top, with brown hair that reached his shoulders and  
a brown beard slightly mottled with gray that reached to the bottom of  
his neck. He turned around to face Hardy.  
  
"Master Heidegger?" The fatter man than Hardy lets out a weird laugh.  
  
"Gya, ha, ha! So, what brings you here, Hardy? You want to finish your  
training? Heard you whooped a Ginyu AND Ridley. You won't need much  
more coaching, if I say so myself." Hardy looks down.  
  
"Can I speak to you somewhere private?" Heidegger shook his head.  
  
"No. Ginyus all over the place ready to attack the Chozos. Tell you  
what. We'll find a restaurant and talk there. It's not private, but  
a lot of the planet trade soldiers are lazier than your police. They  
won't pay much heed." They walk inside of a rather decent-looking cafe,  
if it weren't for the lack of lighting inside it. They could barely  
see, and it seemed like the perfect place to talk about something in  
private, since the Elite 5 of the Ginyu Forces were always being too  
loud to hear anything but themselves. They were up on and near a well-  
lit stage, performing for a crowd, comedy and karaoke.  
  
The crowd was enjoying themselves, thinking that these five were better  
off without their best employer, Freiza. That Icer was in the crowd,  
too, but just staring amusedly until Hardy and Heidegger walked inside.  
Freiza wanted to have nothing fishy going on, and they're sitting in the  
near-darkness was enough to count as fishy for him. Heidegger had made  
a motion for Hardy to keep quiet, as he had picked onto Freiza sensing  
them. Sure enough, Freiza was soon standing by their table.  
  
"You boys don't mind if you would watch our performers a little closer,  
do you? I'm uncomfortable when people keep their distance from me."  
  
---------------------  
  
Royce, Ridley, and Houston were looking everywhere for Hardy. They had  
no clue where he was, and the Scouter that Houston was given (standard  
Ginyu Force equipment) wasn't helping much, as he didn't know what  
Hardy's energy signature was in the first place. He did find out how he  
measured up to a lot of the planet trade warriors that wanted to pick on  
the new guy, but after telling them what his readings were, they ran  
away. He even made seven other Ginyus laugh with his new pose. They  
thought that it fitted Houston well, as he seemed humorously psychotic  
around them. Royce was always sensing Hardy close by, but never to an  
exact point, and Ridley kept on stopping in front of the cafe where  
Hardy was at.  
  
After picking up a whiff of burritos, (Hardy's favorite food) he also  
started to feel uneasy. He peeked inside and his usual red skin drained  
to pink. He turned back outside and stuttered uncontrollably.  
  
"F-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-Freiza i-i-is t-t-talki-talking t-to H-h-Har-dy..."  
Royce looked inside and turned to face Ridley.  
  
"So what's the big deal? I'll just squeeze the moron's hand and suck  
his energy dry." Houston looks inside and gets grabbed by a tall,  
Frankenstein-like man with red hair.  
  
"You're da' thud puhson who's peeked inside tha' door. Do ya' want in  
or out?" Houston looks over to the others at the stage. Show-off time.  
  
"Uh...uh...in!" The man shakes Houston's hand.  
  
"Great! Name's Recoome!" Recoome lets go and steps back. "What's  
yours?" Houston got the idea from the step back and does his  
introductory pose ending with the squatting psycho-face that Hardy  
had congratulated him for.  
  
"HOUSTON!!!" Recoome cracks a grin like he's about to burst into  
laughter.  
  
"Whoa, dat's a weird pose. I'll bet ya get a lot of people laughing  
at ya. Hey, why not try a comedy routine? Or sing?" Houston walks  
up to the stage.  
  
"I'll sing." Recoome looks up.  
  
"JEICE! BURTER! Hand over the mike!"  
  
"We were done anyway...only got a 35 on that duet. Psh, thing's  
broken." An orange skinned man says partly upset in a heavy Aussie  
accent.  
  
"Ozzy, please. Perry Mason." The music starts. Houston clears his  
throat as Freiza looks over and says that his favorite song is  
playing. Houston starts to sing the lyrics in a voice that none of  
the Ginyus had heard before. It sounded too good for a karaoke stint.  
Ridley and Royce came in while Houston was singing and it seemed like  
a bit more attention than that was being pulled.  
  
After the song ended the score was tallied and Houston got an 85.  
Freiza was clapping at this performance. Unless the song was an  
Icer Acid, Frieza almost always scored below 10. This distraction was  
the moment that Hardy and Heidegger had waited for, and Royce and Ridley  
took the time to sit by them both, also.  
  
"Master, can I ask for your help? The Federation is going to fight, and  
if I know my instincts, Freiza will be with them to literally blow up  
any resistance. I know that you're strong, light-years stronger than  
Freiza, and our weapons aren't enough." Heidegger rubs his beard, and  
then laughs.  
  
"Gya, ha, ha, haa! Hardy, the reason why I came here was to buy a planet  
for Shinra, but this must have been fate. I never expected to see you  
again, and I never expected you to ask. Buuut...my answer is..."  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"No." Hardy almost stands up and Ridley begins to stumble backwards.  
  
"NO?! How?!" Heidegger looks at Hardy.  
  
"Did you bother to check customs reports before leaving?"  
  
"Uh..." Heidegger glares.  
  
"Gul'Gen has left for Planet Tallon 7, the current capital of the Chozo  
Union. He's going to wait for the Emperor."  
  
"Emperor?" Heidegger looks up in exhaustion and leans back.  
  
"Don't they teach you history? Emperor Artic of the Icers. Freiza's  
grandfather. He's the one who is supervising this attack. He's as  
pacifist as the Chozo used to be since the Gennom cost the Icers a  
war from attrition. His men want to creep into the Federation for  
selling planets, but he's got other plans. An Iron Curtain Treaty."  
Hardy understood what this meant. Iron Curtain treaties meant that  
both sides totally isolated themselves from each other to avoid  
confict from even starting. "If Gul'Gen can get to Artic for the  
talks, then not a single soldier from either side attacks. That's why  
I'm not helping you. Until then, though..."  
  
'This is rather anti-climatic for the scenario...' Royce thought.  
  
"Let's raise some HAVOC!!!" Heidegger lifts up the table and throws it  
over Ridley at the stage, where Houston dives away and it hits Captain  
Ginyu, knocking him out cold. Houston clobbers Jeice and Burter with  
the microphone that he was still holding and then throws it at Recoome,  
who gets hit between the eyes and falls over. Houston starts on the  
crowd of soldiers and various other brawlers, some of them sent flying  
by Houston's fists of fury.  
  
"I was wondering when we were gonna fight!" Ridley looks at Hardy,  
excitedly. He starts to swing his tail madly into the crowd, while  
Freiza runs after Heidegger outside the restaurant.  
  
---------------------  
  
Gul'Gen stands outside in a barren, empty space. Alone, he waited for  
Emperor Artic. Three IcsAucer ships land a few hundred feet away.  
Out of the doors of the frontward one stood a tall and ancient-looking  
Icer. He came forward to Gul'Gen at a walking pace that, due to his  
stature, was fast, even for walking. He stops and looks down at the  
tiny ancient-looking Chozo.  
  
"Are you Gul'Gen? The leader of the Chozo Union and member of the  
Federation Senate representing your race?" Old Bird looked up.  
  
"Yes. I prepared for your arrival and came alone."  
  
"As have I. The extra ships are empty." Old Bird seems to grin and  
both walk to the inside of the ship. "We will discuss the terms in  
here."  
  
'Something doesn't feel right. But, against my better judgement, I  
believe that the planet trade will no longer attack us. This is too  
easy...they're leaving us alone...'  
  
-----------------------  
  
"EH?!?!?" Gul'Gen looks at the document again. "QUARANTINED?! How?"  
Artic turns around.  
  
"Do you know where Aran is now?" Gul'Gen looks up.  
  
"She's at Chauda Station, fighting off an X...oh no...you're not  
putting us under quarantine because of the X, are you?! This is..is-"  
Artic moves to the desk.  
  
"Our only option. Two of our test subjects for a genome project were  
infected by these 'X' parasites and died ten hours later. Yet the  
most bizzare thing happened. The parasites then merged with each other  
and mimiced the bodies that they infected, as though nothing ever  
happened. But when our soldiers came to exterminate them, they could  
not. The mimiced bodies were destroyed, but the parasites just infected  
the soldiers instead! What is going on in your galaxy is a threat to  
our business of clearing planets off for sale! We've put you under  
quarantine and need a Federation representative to make it official, so  
would you please sign that document...and leave my ship." Gul'Gen  
looked at Artic with fury, but that was all that he could do. Artic,  
however, dared not attack, in case Gul'Gen was a clone of the X. (He  
wasn't.) Gul'Gen signed the document and walked away, leaving the ships  
to fly off into space. He looked to the ground and sighed.  
  
'Why? Samus -will- destroy the X...I know it. Not one parasite will  
remain. After that, I'll...I'll...no...I'm getting mad for no reason.'  
  
---------------------  
  
Ridley and the others, although having taken a beating, left Karru  
Station, partly dissatisfied, but thoroughly enjoying the prospect of a  
treaty that blocked them from the planet trade...but a different foe was   
soon to come. The X themselves, seeking more weapons against the   
Metroids.  
  
It was apparent that now Samus was even more perfect than the X had  
thought. She could destroy -them- as well as the Metroids. But if  
they had an army of humans or others, would they stand a chance?  
The X were afraid. The Queen was loose, and now the one that they  
were going to throw away after she was used was now their greatest  
threat.  
  
Samus might have had a bone to pick with the X, but some of the X  
have a bone to pick with someone else... 


	6. Guess Who?

Chapter 6: Guess Who?  
  
Ridley just couldn't keep himself settled. He had so many  
  
thrills beating up the gutter trash of the planet trade that  
  
he just felt like he had to go back to Karru. Houston had  
  
to keep an eye on him since Royce disappeared from sight  
  
again. Kefka sometimes visited, but she and Ridley would  
  
usually pick fights for fun every time they saw each other.  
  
'If only there was a place for training nearby.' Houston  
  
was exhausted with his near-constant door patrol, and sat  
  
at the kitchen table. Where had Samus gone? Was she  
  
still on Chauda? Moments after he sat down, Hardy came  
  
inside.  
  
"Ridley! Get back in here!" Ridley looked inside the  
  
kitchen, along with Hardy. Hardy sat at the table and  
  
opened the wet bar shutters.   
  
"That was me. Sorry, Houston. You should be able to  
  
see Ridley now." Houston rubs his forehead. He knew that  
  
Ridley was a pain in the rear outside of battle, but this  
  
was getting to be too much.  
  
"Do you know where Royce went, Hardy?" Hardy shook his head.  
  
"Heard anything about Samus, then?" He shook his head again.  
  
"Well, why are you here?!" Hardy looks at Ridley and back.  
  
"Okay...I got a little surprise for Ridley and anyone else  
  
who wants to use it. It's a gravity training room. Heidegger  
  
said that if I actually wanted to improve, I would have to  
  
train under a more extreme body weight. And since I know  
  
Ridley enjoys combative exertion...you could say that I did  
  
it for him, too." Houston sits up.  
  
"Where did you get it?" Hardy slumps and sighs.  
  
"The only place that had that kind of technology is a semi-  
  
developed planet that hasn't been put under Federation  
  
sanction yet. They have some things that I haven't even  
  
seen before, and could trade for quite a bit. Having an  
  
intra-galactic market instead of intra-planetary could  
  
help that world's development." Houston looked at Hardy,  
  
abashed. He hadn't known Hardy for quasi-legal activity  
  
before. But, dire straits sometimes push people over a few  
  
borders. "If we were to sanction them, we could have a  
  
valuable ally in economics and possibly even a few new faces  
  
for bounty hunters."  
  
"Why are you starting to talk politics to me, Hardy? You-"  
  
Hardy halts Houston.  
  
"I'm trying to find a way to explain it to Keaton. I think  
  
I was on a roll, don't you?" Houston shrugged and could just  
  
partly care less.  
  
"Maybe. You know how hard Keaton is to convince of something  
  
like that."  
  
-----------------------  
  
Ridley had stealthily escaped Houston while he was talking to  
  
Hardy. He was heading for the elevator to the docking bay,  
  
ready to leave for Karru again.  
  
What he didn't expect to see was two dragons, much like  
  
himself in appearance and a dark figure, too far to see  
  
clearly. He couldn't tell who the dragons were because for  
  
one thing, he hadn't seen them before, and another thing,  
  
they were both wearing respiration masks, so he couldn't see  
  
their faces. The figure in the shadows says in a clear voice,  
  
"Get rid of him." The two dragons leap toward Ridley, who  
  
jumps high and flies overhead, sending fire their way. They  
  
dart off to the sides and fly toward Ridley, clutching his  
  
arms in their talons and diving to the ground. Ridley gets  
  
up and sweeps the two dragons with his tail. They jump over  
  
and kick him in the face, which he halts by grabbing them both  
  
and throwing to the ground.  
  
The elevator starts to go up to the docking bay again, this time  
  
with Houston and Hardy as passengers. Royce had popped in,  
  
pointing out that Ridley had gotten away, and that something just  
  
felt wrong. She left for somewhere else, leaving Houston and  
  
Hardy to chase after Ridley. Fortunately, they knew where he  
  
was, and that was better than a wild goose chase. The elevator  
  
stops and they both see Ridley grappling with two other dragons.  
  
After stabbing one through the chest with his tail and nearly  
  
scorching the other's face to the bone, he steps back and the  
  
shadowed figure walks up to a lighted area. Hardy gasps and  
  
shakes his head. The sleek, black Power Suit that they saw  
  
had only belonged to one person.  
  
Locuthis Schneider. Hardy kept on trying to deny it as he  
  
saw minute patches of X around the joints of the Power Suit.  
  
How did the X possibly reach Schneider, who of all people on  
  
Tsebnash should have died?  
  
The dragons got up from Ridley's onslaught, looking totally  
  
unharmed and flew away for a nearby planet. Schneider steps  
  
back slowly.  
  
"Hmph...you humans...didn't think about how much measure that  
  
we took into account. We had been waiting for the day that  
  
we, the X, become the supreme race of the universe. That day  
  
would be the day when all Metroids perish. We would be an  
  
unstoppable force...yes. Unstoppable, since our only enemy  
  
-is- the Metroids. I, one of the Core-X, escaped the Queen  
  
when she was hunting us down. A B.S.L. ship had landed on  
  
a minor expedition of ecological measurements. I had  
  
hitched a ride on this ship, leaving using Aran's, stowing  
  
away right beside that infernal hatchling Metroid that she  
  
so carelessly left alive. She had no clue why it was  
  
squeaking so much when she had gotten to Ceres Station.  
  
After she had returned to Alpha Centauri, I then waited for  
  
a different moment. That moment came with a fool-hardy man  
  
that I possessed, the one that you see here before you."  
  
"But..." Hardy looked at an extremely peeved Ridley, while  
  
Schneider continued.  
  
"But what? He died there, on Tsebnash? Oh, sorry. -He-  
  
did die, but that only left me without a current body.  
  
But we X can mimic what we take over. So I had gotten into his  
  
ship, and it was a piece of work...It stood up to the heat and  
  
shock of Tsebnash long enough for me to escape with it. I had  
  
time on my hands for re-assimilating Schneider's form after my  
  
getaway. And now..." Schneider jumps onto his ship. "A few  
  
parting words...  
  
"We will be perfect. I don't care if we even have to use our  
  
most hated enemy against anything that stands between us and  
  
our opportunity." Schneider gets inside of his ship and  
  
flies off after the other two. Ridley lets off a short growl  
  
and takes off outside the station on a different ship.  
  
But where was he going to head to? After Schneider? Naw,  
  
Samus would handle that freak later. He was going to speed up  
  
the process.  
  
He was gonna go after Samus.  
  
---------------------  
  
Ridley had arrived at Chauda with the feeling of a frozen lump  
  
in his stomach that he wouldn't be able to get out. Samus was  
  
doing her handiwork, all right, but how well was she faring?  
  
He didn't want to be shielded by her, but he didn't want to be  
  
attacked by an X, either. Unfortunately, moments after leaving  
  
the docking bay and reaching the sub-zero containment, he had to   
  
settle with the greater of two evils.  
  
Ridley screams in pain and terror as a Core-X attacks him and  
  
ends his search for Samus then and there... 


	7. Sadness

Chapter 7: Sadness  
  
Samus was staring down the clone of Ridley, knowing that either  
  
one of them had only one hit left before either of them died.  
  
She held her cannon arm toward the clone the entire standoff.  
  
At how close it was to her, it could see right through the  
  
visor. It saw her face, it saw the emotions that were written  
  
all over her eyes. The clone leapt backward and stood upright.  
  
"Do it." Samus looked at the clone, puzzled. It takes a step  
  
forward. "I asked you to finish this. I saw your situation   
  
also, and I could finish this battle just as well. Or are you  
  
not willing to end the existence of the X, just as you had held  
  
back on the Metroids?"  
  
"I...shut up." Samus' voice quavered, this was the same Ridley  
  
that she knew, yet he was not the same Ridley. He was a clone  
  
of the X now. But why -couldn't- she bring herself to finish  
  
this?  
  
"Hmph. Then finish this so I don't say another word." He  
  
takes two steps. "I have just one question, though...are you  
  
willing to commit genocide to save your Federation again? You  
  
had done this once before. So what is stopping you from doing  
  
it now?"  
  
"I...don't know. Ridley..." He takes three steps, and is a  
  
claw swipe away from Samus. He raises his arm to swipe...  
  
"Do it...or I will." He flinches and brings his arm down,  
  
while Samus launches a Super Missile at the clone's head and  
  
jumps back to avoid the claws of Ridley's attack. She  
  
watches the body slump to the ground and reform into a Core-X.  
  
"...Ridley...why...? How did the X get to you?" Samus weakens  
  
the Core-X and absorbs it. Tears had streamed down her face as  
  
she ran to the nearest Navigation Room to speak to Adam.  
  
"? Oh. So you managed to return. I have been ordered to keep  
  
you in containment until the Federation's deployment has arrived."  
  
"WHAT?! You can't do that! Can you imagine what would happen to  
  
them? What would be worth the trouble?!"  
  
"Catching the SA-X, of course."  
  
"You saw what it can do, and even what the X can do. Please! Let  
  
me stop it!"  
  
"I cannot do that." Samus paced around, thinking about what the  
  
stipulations of letting the Federation get infected with the X would  
  
be.  
  
"Let me out."  
  
"? I cannot do that."  
  
"Then activate the self-destruct sequence. Destroy the station and  
  
all the X aboard it."  
  
"And what would you do?" Samus pounded on the panel.  
  
"Adam! Do it!"  
  
"...Adam? Who is Adam?"  
  
"He was...my CO."  
  
"And what did he do? Sit comfortably in his office and give you   
  
dangerous orders? Or did he risk his life for you, just so you  
  
could throw it away later?" Samus' face contorted in shock.  
  
"How would you understand, machine?!"  
  
"How foolish..." Samus looked at the monitor. The purple lens-  
  
like eye displayed on it shifted slightly. "If you were to adjust  
  
the station's orbit and make it collide with SR388, you just might  
  
destroy them all." She blinked, an extra wave of shock added to the  
  
last. "You are to head to the Operations Room and use the controls  
  
there. That's an order. Any objections, Lady?" Samus shook her  
  
head and darted out the door, not knowing about the next battles ahead.  
  
---------------------  
  
Houston could actually believe that Ridley became a casualty.  
  
He had over-reacted worse than Keaton, either out of his own  
  
excitement, or something about his worry finally snapped. He  
  
had always been worried about Samus since her mission to  
  
destroy the X on Chauda. She had to go alone, and what  
  
happened to her last time was unsettling. She was attacked  
  
by an X the last time she went alone. She could have died  
  
that time. Ridley didn't want that to happen again.  
  
He probably didn't want to admit it, but he had harbored a  
  
sense of caring for both Samus and Houston since that one  
  
attack that separated them both. He knew where both were,  
  
always. And Mother Brain always gave Ridley brownie points  
  
for being such an 'active pirate'. True he was bad, cunning,  
  
and the most on-duty of them all at the time, but he had spent  
  
a lot more of his away time playing 'guardian angel' to  
  
Gul'Gen even when he was a pirate. Houston was almost totally  
  
safe from pirates, nested deep inside the Federation. But  
  
Samus and Gul'Gen were another story, being in the sector that  
  
Mother Brain controlled.  
  
Houston had to cook up a funeral speech for Ridley. Yet he  
  
had time. They weren't holding the funeral until Samus could  
  
attend. He wasn't as emotionally panged as Samus was, but  
  
he still hurt.  
  
'A pirate that had begun his course of redemption by saving the  
  
brother of a famous bounty hunter, by watching over the one  
  
who raised that one bounty hunter to the strength and talent  
  
that made her famous, and after his ties to evil all but broke,  
  
he began to make headway on his path to becoming a hero himself.  
  
His legacy short and his name still persecuted by some, he was  
  
still beside us as one of the Federation since the battle  
  
against the Kihunters.'  
  
"Aw, who am I kidding? This kind of stuff is Hardy's  
  
department, or Keaton's...nah. Can't count on Keaton to give  
  
him a funeral speech. He'll just say a few derogatory words and  
  
leave the podium." Houston really thought of Ridley as a  
  
headache now. First by stressing him out, and now by having to  
  
think of an elaborate speech for a dead dragon. Not to say that  
  
he was dumb, but he hated concocting speeches, and hated having  
  
to present them even more. He always messed up somewhere.  
  
-----------------------  
  
Ridley woke up and looked around. He didn't exactly remember  
  
what happened last, he felt like he was drifting after walking  
  
inside of a cold chamber. Drifting? His instinctual astral  
  
separation. Now he remembered. He was attacked by an X, and...  
  
and...froze to death. But why was he still alive? Where was he?  
  
He couldn't possibly still be alive in this universe unless...there  
  
was another body for him. He looked down at himself, perplexed at   
  
what he was seeing...something he couldn't believe he was seeing.  
  
Human hands. He was cloned into a human. 


	8. Samus' Escape

Chapter 8: Samus' Escape  
  
This had been Ridley's worst nightmare. He didn't think that the human  
  
body of himself would be resorted to. This was the last one that he had  
  
made on this obscure base. It was his last chance on this plane of  
  
existence. But, if the base was obscure, how come three of the Space  
  
Pirates came into the door?  
  
'This place...it's inhabited now. They found my secret base. Welcome,  
  
my former allies. Welcome to Norfair Altri.'  
  
------------------------  
  
Samus was heading away from the Pork Roast and Excelsion on the course   
  
that she chose to escape the Federation. Having absorbed the SA-X, she  
  
gained what Adam thought impossible. She could use the Ice Beam again.  
  
But, why did the SA-X help her? It was like it spoke to her own soul,  
  
as though an exact twin of her in complete truth. It let her take it  
  
and use its power. It acted as though it realized the full fallacy of  
  
taking on a Metroid. It would let her, who could destroy Metroids, do  
  
the honors.  
  
But thinking about if the X were soulless or not was nothing. She was  
  
worried that Hardy might actually be against her for once. Definitely  
  
Keaton, he always trumpeted that bounty hunters shouldn't be trusted.  
  
Yet, blowing up SR388, that was a very serious charge. She could have  
  
been arrested by even the Chozo for it, as it was one of their worlds.  
  
Who caught her, though, was the worst bunch to get caught by, especially  
  
just after blowing up a planet. She didn't see them at first, because of  
  
their black tops, but when she felt the ship come to a halt, she knew what  
  
they were.  
  
Three IcSaucer ships, each projecting a gravitic motion stopper. Not a   
  
tractor beam, per se, but something similar. She saw the communication  
  
screen light up and on it were two Icers. She knew Freiza. It was hard  
  
to not be part of the Bounty Hunter's Guild and not know about Freiza.  
  
The other was far larger than Freiza, sitting in a throne-like chair,  
  
looking thoroughly bored. This one she didn't know of. 'Oh, well.  
  
Soon find out,' Samus thought.  
  
"Well...if it isn't Leah Aran. Blowing up planets to charge my daughter  
  
Freiza, so she can be arrested by the guild." Samus looked at the big  
  
one again, an expression of shock on her face. How did he know her   
  
mother's name? This must be that 'Ol' King Cold' that her father had  
  
a row about. He knew the whole family, it was common business for the   
  
Arans to be in the planet trade once before.  
  
But when her father was told to capture Freiza for the genocide of the  
  
Saiya-jin and the destruction of Planet Vegeta, he did as told and Freiza  
  
was casually let go. And he and Leah were blamed for the incident. Ever  
  
since, he swore to not get involved in their activity again. He had cleared  
  
worlds in Gamma Sector of the Space Pirates and Mother Brain and gave them  
  
to the Chozo for a discout price. As vengeance, Mother Brain struck not only  
  
the Chozo, but also the colony that the Arans lived in. That was how Houston  
  
and Samus got separated...but was there other stuff? Were there other Arans  
  
that this guy knew about?  
  
She decided to find out. She was going to sneak in.  
  
"First things first, I'm not Leah. I never dealt with you before, and I had  
  
hoped not to. But here I am, caught by you, and for what? Blowing up   
  
SR388, I presume?" King Cold nodded. "So, what is it going to be?"  
  
"Oh. I'm afraid sentence and warrant have already been given. You are to  
  
be executed in Artica three days after our arrival there. I suggest that  
  
you come peaceably, as you might not want that sentence accelerated to now."  
  
"You had no need to say that. I give up. I figure that there's no point  
  
in resisting the planet trade when I'm fleeing the Federation." It was then  
  
that Adam noticed who was in the background and cut the channel.  
  
"Lady, Hardy and Houston were there."  
  
"...WHAT?! How did they...?"  
  
"Apparently, the havoc that they caused took a shine to Freiza. Freiza  
  
appointed them as honorary agents, because who escaped in the ruckus of  
  
that fight needed to get away from the station. Freiza even thought of  
  
Houston the Ginyu as amusing." Samus couldn't help laughing at that.  
  
"So, Hardy and Houston took the time to decoy Keaton with SR388. He  
  
wanted to set all this up to..."  
  
"Help me escape? You mean...he arranged for the Federation to get close,  
  
and what?"  
  
"Chase the planet trade. Keaton recieved a message about your execution,  
  
and he's thrilled. You know what happens if they fail to deliver?"  
  
Samus thought a moment. Hardy got in close to Freiza so he could bring  
  
Freiza up to SR388 in time to see it explode. He didn't want Samus to get  
  
caught by Keaton, because of the chaos she'd cause in the Federation, so  
  
he had Keaton apporaching also. She'd go the other way, heading toward  
  
the planet trade and...she could escape and have Keaton attack the planet  
  
trade, shouting "YOU'RE INCOMPETENT!!!" the whole time. Oh, it was an   
  
awful joke, and only she and Hardy knew it was a setup by Hardy.  
  
-------------------------  
  
Ridley had no idea that the Pirates would be so welcoming to him.  
  
Some even asked directions pleasantly. It was like their old boss  
  
before Mother Brain returned to them. Ridley wasn't an aggressive  
  
pirate leader, but Mother Brain turned him into an inhumane, demonic  
  
monster at one time. She was assured by the wily-ass dragon, however,  
  
that his clones would be just as submissive to her as he was. Right,  
  
and Mother Brain had an IQ of 32. He just knew that if he disobeyed,  
  
that she would ruthlessly control him again. His second clone was far  
  
more durable than the first, the first clone having been destroyed on Zebes,  
  
with him defeated a second time. He then temporarily joined the Kihunters  
  
and shifted between them and Samus. He ultimately chose Samus in the end.  
  
Afterward, he was wrongfully accused of organizing the Pirates on Acuar,  
  
when it was that flashy bastard Laguna Ater. Everything turned out almost  
  
fine there, too. His second form finally failed him when infected by a  
  
Core-X. This was his last chance. Now he had the ultimate disguise, one  
  
that no one, not even Samus, would know he had. He went to the docking  
  
bay and there stood those same two dragons and black Power Suit.  
  
'Dammit, Schneider. How many of my comrades did you infect? How many  
  
of them did you put here?' Ridley looked at the other two dragons,  
  
thinking that he didn't stand much chance against them in this body.  
  
"Now...I had you cornered like a rat even before you came out of the  
  
hole. Ridley, I know it's you. You think you can hide, but I can see  
  
your genes. I can see straight to the essence of you that can be copied.  
  
You messed up, not giving yourself an even stronger dragon-form, though.  
  
Now, you're useless to me."  
  
"Useless to you, Schneider, but not to me!" His body seemed different as  
  
a faint red radiance surrounded him and he leapt over Schneider and the  
  
dragons, who tried to emblazon him. Schneider ducked under the flames and  
  
watched as Ridley bullcharged him, sending him skidding across the floor.  
  
Ridley then ran toward Schneider's ship, ready to steal it from him.  
  
"Dammit......he's a lot more devious than I thought. He's not an ordinary  
  
human...he's still a dragon. That body makes sure of it." Schneider  
  
watches as his ship flies out of the docking bay. Certain that Ridley  
  
will be confused for an enemy, he lets him go get blown up.  
  
Ridley was smarter than that. He changed his name to Ryu Ookazi and had  
  
registered the ship to his fake identity on the fly. They might -think-  
  
that it's Schneider's, but it's not in his name anymore.  
  
"Ha. That idiot. He had no idea. I'm not a dragon on the physical plane  
  
without being beyond human or parasite clone!"  
  
------------------------  
  
Samus looked around the cell, wanting some kind of sign about Hardy or  
  
Houston. She waited until Hardy came by, and then began to discuss  
  
what she had in mind.  
  
"In all actuality, Samus, I came across something funny also. I wanted  
  
to get a closer look, but planet trade records on the geneaology of the  
  
Arans are classified by the Emperor. This means that those records are  
  
in Artica, and under security that only you can get in and out of."  
  
"...So, you rigged this whole thing to be for me to get you information?"  
  
Hardy nodded.   
  
"I also want to do a few medical investigations while we're on the ship.   
  
I want to see exactly what the vaccine did to you, and, well, what absorbing   
  
the SA-X did to you, too." Hardy waits for Samus to stand. "Well, shall we?"  
  
------------------------  
  
Houston and Hardy looked at the panel. They had no idea what went on in   
  
the station but what they saw was no less than astonishing.  
  
Samus, due to the vaccine, was turned into a Metroid, more or less, and  
  
couldn't remove any part of the Fusion Suit except her helmet. But the  
  
other part of their investigation held a different revelation. The SA-X  
  
was still alive. Samus and the SA-X were two separate gene sets in one  
  
genome. She was an impossible duality. An X parasite and a Metroid in  
  
a co-existence. How did something like this happen?  
  
"Uh, Samus? Did the SA-X...fight you?"  
  
"Yes. But when I fought an Omega Metroid in the docking bay, it tried  
  
to assist me, and even complacently let me take it."  
  
"It makes sense now. That's why you could use the Ice Beam with the Fusion  
  
Suit. The SA-X fused its DNA to yours while being absorbed. You know what  
  
this means?" Hardy looks around and then at Houston. "Uhm...where's that  
  
'Wave Shifter'?"  
  
"Wave Shifter? What does it look like?" Houston holds up a lightsaber-like  
  
tube.  
  
"That's it." Hardy takes the tube from Houston. "Now. What a Wave Shifter  
  
does is activates gene patterns that aren't normally touched by the energies  
  
of certain emotions. So, effectively, it's like turning on all of your DNA  
  
receptors. Wave Shifters are very illegal in most parts, because you feel  
  
like a god when exposed to it. Yet, even if you feel it, you're not, and  
  
that's what makes it dangerous." Hardy looks at Houston. "Prime example of  
  
a 'drug machine'. I studied that field when I was still in training. Knew  
  
these things like the back of my hand, because I had to use one for an  
  
interrogation. Made the person it was used on so haughty on himself that he  
  
blabbed everything without a single care. Know what else? He demanded that  
  
we release him, and that he wouldn't harm another person. I made him take  
  
his word for it after turning the machine off, and he hasn't done a thing   
  
since." Hardy looked down at the Wave Shifter and saw that it was on and   
  
ponting toward him. "Whoops!" He fumbles with the machine and turns it off.  
  
"I had no idea that I would remember all of that. These things -do- work."  
  
Houston looked at Hardy.  
  
"Why not point that thing at Samus?"  
  
"Uhm...now that's the trick. I don't know if both Samuses will try to  
  
occupy the same body. To a degree they already do, but, I don't want an  
  
extremity. I'll do it, but I hope nothing bad happens." Hardy turns the  
  
device on, pointing it at Samus. The Fusion Suit shifted appearance into a  
  
bulkier shape. It looked like Samus' original Power Suit.  
  
"Samus?" She gets up and looks at Houston. He stares through the visor at  
  
eyes that are completely white. "AAGH!"  
  
"What?" Hardy looks at Houston. "Oh. Take your helmet off, please."  
  
This other Samus removes the helmet and rubber band that held her hair in  
  
a bun. Her eyes -were- white, but soon changed. They had became like  
  
normal eyes...if yellow irises were normal. Houston still thought that  
  
Samus looked freaky. "Houston, meet the other half of Samus: The SA-X."  
  
--------------------------  
  
Ryu got back to Alpha Centauri without a hitch. He was cleared, thinking  
  
and knowing that Schneider's ship model was like some others. Now all he  
  
had to do was search for Hardy, and tell him what was going on. He checked  
  
every restaurant in every sector, and finally resigned to searching Hardy's  
  
office, whereupon he found a note that said:  
  
'Ridley, If you're still out there and come back alive, I've gone to spy on  
  
the planet trade. I know I'm stupid and even foolish for it, but I can't  
  
help but wonder about the records I put below this note. I want you to   
  
confirm it for me. Please? I have to help Samus.' Ryu looked at the  
  
records. He looked at the note again, poring over the last sentence.  
  
'I have to help Samus...what trouble is she in this time?' Ryu glanced  
  
again at the records. Lex Aran. Samus had a younger sister? If that  
  
was the case...then Leah must still be alive also. Ryu decided. He  
  
was going to leave the madness involving Samus up to Hardy. Now he had  
  
a different Aran to pursue.  
  
An older nemesis than Samus.  
  
---------------------------  
  
Houston couldn't believe it. He was looking at most of what Samus used to  
  
be. She innocently stared at Houston, and then at Hardy. Then she looked  
  
over at the door. Hardy sees her ears twitch slightly.  
  
"Someone's coming. She can tell. Houston, we've got to hide her."  
  
'Hide? I can hide.' The SA-X looks at an empty glass tube and jumps on top  
  
of it. She turns into her Core-X state and fits into it, looking like an  
  
ice blue gelatin inside of the glass. King Cold walks in.  
  
"Oh, it's you two. Well, any research?"  
  
"Oh, yes. We recieved the sample and had Houston send her back to the cell.  
  
He just got back in time for the results."  
  
"Which were?" King Cold looks at the screen. "N...no! This isn't possible!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"She can't do that! We've got a potential danger here, we can't have her on  
  
Artica! If the Emperor finds that Samus can't be killed without a Metroid  
  
nearby, what will I say, or do?!" King Cold in his obvious paralytic shock  
  
didn't notice the blue gel that slid across the floor and back to the cell  
  
that Samus was 'imprisoned' in.  
  
The SA-X was smart. It, like Samus, knew Hardy's plan to infiltrate and  
  
access otherwise forbidden information. It would wait until the time was  
  
right.  
  
-------------------------  
  
Ryu felt like he was on a wild goose chase. Going to Artica, Icerra was  
  
probably what he thought was the worst mistake ever. But, there was where  
  
the information about the Arans was discovered...what little that there was.  
  
Yet, he was not Ridley...at least, not to everyone who knew who Ridley was.  
  
He watched as a group of three IcSaucer ships arrived just when he did.  
  
Up high and visible in the atmosphere of the planet was the Excelsion,   
  
Keaton's main vessel. That oaf didn't use Excalibur this time because he   
  
felt it was too small for dealing with a capture as big as the SA-X.  
  
Ryu had to chuckle at the folly of unwittingly letting Samus be so loosely  
  
guarded. She had something up her sleeve if she was complacent. Waiting  
  
things out for the right moment. But...why did she have her original Power  
  
Suit? He saw her new one, and it looked nothing like that one. He then  
  
noticed the yellow eyes and gaped.  
  
Either that Samus was a fake...or the planet trade had the SA-X in their  
  
hands. Keaton wouldn't believe that news. The biggest bunch of barbaric  
  
ruffians ever caught the most dangerous alien in the universe: a parasite  
  
clone of Samus Aran, destructible only by a Metroid.  
  
------------------------  
  
Gul'Gen felt a stir. It was a quiet stir, one that the most sensitive  
  
mind could put a finger exactly on. He did see that Ridley made his last  
  
transfer of his consciousness that he could do, and what perturbed him was  
  
that Ridley seemed to have even more control of his powers, even the fact  
  
that he had powers.  
  
'The Eyes are opening. He is becoming aware...more aware of his astral  
  
self and the abilities it can give his physical body. Bizarre, though...  
  
why does his power only begin to awaken in a human body? Why not in his  
  
old dragon form? Maybe...it was too crude.' The Old Bird looked around  
  
the swirling emanances of that plane and saw that Ridley was gaining a  
  
very odd-looking aura. It seemed like the astral energies around him were  
  
being drawn to him like water in a sink drain. His aura was the color of  
  
blood, and burned like fire.   
  
'Oh...no. He is a Chaos Dragon. A very imbalanced one, too. This is bad,  
  
but it is no wonder that he gravitated to me so much. He wanted redemption  
  
and love so badly that he thought that being near me could give it. True,  
  
I am not evil, but I cannot give him such. Samus-san...however...no. No.  
  
If she found out or even knew he is Ridley, she will have my head and his.   
  
I cannot force anything. I should not let him do that, either.'  
  
-------------------------  
  
Ryu was in front of an apartment door to a rather seedy building. He half  
  
expected the planet trade to treat Leah with more graces than this. He  
  
knocked on the door. Nothing. Nothing except shuffling noises.  
  
"Excuse me. Does Leah Aran live here?" A shaky female voice sounded at the  
  
other side of the door.  
  
"Why do you ask...who are you?"  
  
"I can't tell you my name. But...I'm sorry about the attack. Mother Brain  
  
forced me to." The door whirls open and Ryu gets the business end of a   
  
plasma pistol pointed at his face. A woman with purple, mousy hair and  
  
dirty clothes stands in the doorway holding the gun with both hands.  
  
"Y...you're not Ridley. You can't be." Ryu shook his head.  
  
"First things first...I want you to hear me out before you even fire a shot,  
  
or you get nothing out of me." The woman lowers the gun. "Now...I -am-  
  
Ridley, I'm just on my last chance in life. Tut, lower it. As for your  
  
children...well, they're safe. They're both bounty hunters. They're both  
  
here right now, trying to find out anything on you and any other family."  
  
"S-Samus isn't safe. She's going to be killed in a few days."  
  
"Not true. I've played enough cat-and-mouse with her to know exactly how she  
  
thinks. She's got herself a way out. She wouldn't have gone quietly other-  
  
wise." Leah grins.  
  
"She was always belligerent and in trouble, but for a reason of hers. Now,  
  
it's like she shuts up for her own good. I can't believe that I'm talking  
  
to you, an old enemy of my husband's, like this. I never thought that you'd  
  
be human, or think of being human." Leah motions for Ryu to come inside.  
  
(Aha...so here's the one. Yes...yes. She's already magnetized to him.)  
  
The inside of the apartment looked run-down, but as well-cleaned as it  
  
could be. There was a girl inside on the couch, with sharply pointed black  
  
hair that stood straight up. She looked and was completely calm through the  
  
whole incident, and looked as though in a trance.  
  
(Please be eyes for me, sister. I must see if this is meant to be.)  
  
"What is meant to be?" Ryu was startled at her voice. She was younger, but  
  
sounded exactly like Samus. "Oh, sorry! I sometimes daydream about an old  
  
bird-man. I'm Lex Aran. Mom tells me that I'm the youngest of three  
  
children, but I don't know 'em. By the way...who was the lady in the orange  
  
Power Suit? They said she was an Aran, too. Is she an aunt of mine?"  
  
"No." Ryu snickered. "She's your older sister." Lex's face widened.  
  
"I bet bounty hunters get in trouble all the time, huh?"  
  
-------------------------- (Second Day)  
  
Samus escaped the cell easily. Security lulled on the second day,  
  
as predicted, and the reasons for that was that there was nothing  
  
important involving her. She didn't have completely free roam of  
  
the place, (it was still very full of guards, and she once got  
  
stuck in a men's bathroom trying to dodge an alien look and sound  
  
alike of Fat Bastard.) but she was able to sneak around to the archive  
  
lab of the palace.  
  
Her search for the Aran genealogical information was successful. Inside  
  
of a massive library was a prominent section on the Aran family and their  
  
influence on star systems local to the Federation HQ Station.  
  
The Arans have been for 40 generations one of the nobler families of  
  
the planet trade. Owning more than 50 planets, this family has had  
  
more power and prestige than the Icers themselves, and continued to  
  
do so until a highly organized group of space pirates systematically  
  
destroyed all members of the family except for three. Planets of the  
  
Lylatian ownership were seized by the Arans for those people. The  
  
Lylatians do not show gratitude, even if they are the reason that the  
  
Cornerians have a formidable base.   
  
The three remaining Arans are: Samus Aran, Solomon Aran, and Leah Aran.  
  
"?! Mother?! Is she still...?" Samus read until she found a record of  
  
Leah.  
  
Leah Aran, however, died during birth complications of her daughter,  
  
Lex. No further information is given.  
  
"...No. She was still alive after that. I was crying for her so much.  
  
She told me and Houston to stay in a room of our living space. I had no idea  
  
that she fled. Not even that she fled to here."  
  
"Lady?" A familiar voice sounded. That same purple lens that was on the   
  
Navigation Room displays of Chauda Station was in front of her, covering  
  
the tragic revelations to her. "...I see. So you found everything that  
  
we needed. I will begin transferring this to Keaton at once. Anyway...is  
  
something wrong?"  
  
"Mother stabbed us in the back. She survived because they let her escape.  
  
They attacked us, not the pirates Mother Brain controlled! Those damn  
  
Ginyus! This whole business of demolishing and trading planets is WRONG!!"  
  
"Lady...were it not for the planet trade, whole civilizations, belligerent  
  
or not, would be too much of a challenge to the Federation. To Lylat. Maybe  
  
even to Elysium. Your own estate makes you one of the most powerful humans  
  
in the galaxy. These records gave you 22 intact planets. And intact in the  
  
terms of the trade means that they have not been attacked. Among the people  
  
on those planets are 5 races. You own five races on these records. What  
  
would you do with them? Destroy them? Raze the surface and use it for your  
  
own bidding? Rule over them with your own Federation, or sell them to the  
  
G-Fed? It's your choice."  
  
"And I wish that it weren't, Adam. Where is Lex? Where can I find her?"  
  
The lens whirred a moment.  
  
"She is in the Ghet District, Sector 52. She lives currently with a nurse-  
  
maid that Leah hired to take care of her...when Leah was still alive."  
  
-------------------------  
  
Leah knew that the stories that the Federation and planet trade told about  
  
her being dead were untrue. She didn't want anyone to know, she was too  
  
afraid of the consequences of being discovered by the Ginyus that didn't  
  
respect the laws of the planet trade. The Elite 5 would uphold the law,  
  
even if they were weird. They were owned and operated by Freiza, and Freiza  
  
was part of the planet trade. If they disobeyed Freiza, they were breaking  
  
the law.  
  
But Leah could count on them. Captain Ginyu wasn't a total fool, and he was  
  
chivalrous to a degree, too. She knew which of the planet trade to reach for  
  
when she was in trouble. She knew which sectors she would be least noticed  
  
in. She knew who would look for her and who wouldn't, and for what reasons,  
  
too. Madly insane as she was, it was hard to forget. She felt as though a  
  
constant trauma was applied to her life.  
  
That changed when she had seen Ridley. But he didn't look savage, or demonic.  
  
He looked soft and human. This she knew by feelings was the real nature of  
  
him. He was young for his clan and race, also, maybe being in the ballpark  
  
of 17, if not younger, as a human equivalent. He also had many dark memories  
  
to share, but would shirk away from one.   
  
A dragon of his clan that she knew, part of the Ginyus now, and the worst   
  
behaved of them, strangling to death in his venom-thorned tail a small female   
  
dragon. Mah'aren, the dragon that was part of the Ginyus now, looked almost   
  
exactly like Ridley used to, but blue, and much, much larger. Even outside   
  
the memory he looked absolutely intimidating, dwarfing any other, even King   
  
Cold, by at least double that size. The little girl dragon, however...  
  
Ridley never told her who that one was. He would always shake in rage, but  
  
could only cry.  
  
------------------------  
  
Samus wasn't going to leave the planet too early. If anything, she wanted  
  
to find Lex and tell her to leave Icerra. In the midst of the madness, she  
  
could have been caught and executed on the spot by the more elite guards,  
  
but one group actually escorted her to the location. She thought that  
  
she wouldn't get much visiting time, considering that she was going to go  
  
back to her cell at the palace soon afterward. She knocked on the door.  
  
"That must be the Ginyu escort I was told about. I'm going to go into a  
  
different room. Ridley...Lex..." Ryu nodded.  
  
"We know. Pass whatever she says on to you." Leah dashed into her  
  
bedroom and shut the door quickly, as Ryu opened the front door. Samus,  
  
Recoome, and Captain Ginyu. They walked into the apartment. Captain  
  
Ginyu looked around the apartment and nodded.  
  
"We're clear. You should be lucky that Freiza thinks a little shaking up  
  
needs to go on." Samus nodded.  
  
"You're Lex...right?"  
  
"Yeah. This is the person that...Leah hired. Ryu Ookazi. He's been my  
  
caretaker since I can remember. Mother hired him for house errands that  
  
she couldn't take care of, and..."  
  
Leah couldn't stand hearing herself in the past tense; the third person,  
  
but she had to wait. Samus was still in there. She couldn't risk a  
  
difficult reunion. She waited with slowly drawn breath for it all to end...  
  
"Ryu...you know what I'm asking you, don't you?" He knew. He and Lex had  
  
to leave before Keaton began carpet-lasering the city. That was why. He  
  
was smart to catch Hardy's plan and wait to spring the trap at the time  
  
that was expected.  
  
Leah didn't believe her ears. Keaton was going to destroy the city of Artica?  
  
She couldn't stay, either, but given her options, she either had to go quiet,  
  
or confront Samus...who probably without a doubt felt betrayed after finding  
  
out about her survival.  
  
"Oh God...now what...? I can't leave this place that way. I don't want to  
  
face Samus." Her eyes quickly set onto the Scouter that was on her night  
  
table. She picked it up and sent a message to anyone who would hear.  
  
"Hello? I'm stuck inside my apartment, Samus Aran is here. I'm stuck inside  
  
my apartment, Samus Aran is here."  
  
Captain Ginyu was prepared for this. Wily as he was, he wasn't mean all the  
  
time. He heard the message go out, and no doubt thought that Samus would be  
  
killed on point if not caught by the more merciful. He put a hand on her  
  
shoulder, the signal that it was time to leave and go back, and then she was  
  
escorted out with Recoome and Ginyu. She gave Ryu and Lex one last glance.  
  
It was goodbye, and she didn't know where they would go.  
  
------------------------- (Third Day)  
  
She was chided severly for everything that happened. Escaping her cell,  
  
finding a protected citizen, and hacking and sending a copy of her genealo-  
  
gical data. They moved her "execution" up to the morning, moments after  
  
King Cold was wagging his tounge in a Keaton-like manner. She had to wait.  
  
It was going to be painful...but seeing as she was still in the form of the  
  
SA-X, she would still live.  
  
Or so she thought. When she reached the point of the execution grounds,  
  
she found a very classic method of death: a guillotine...but that was not  
  
what horrified her. What horrified her was the Metroid that was at the  
  
controls. She wasn't going to die by having her head cut off. She was  
  
going to be eaten alive.  
  
-------------------------  
  
Ryu and the Arans took the time that they had after Samus left to make a  
  
mad run for the spaceport. Ryu was inside his ship and waiting near the  
  
Excelsion, having been cleared by Keaton over a non-video communication.  
  
(He just -had- to thank Schneider for being so careful as to -not- have  
  
video for the ship's comlinks.) They all awaited the signal.  
  
-------------------------  
  
"Fellows under the rule of the leading planet traders, we are gathered all  
  
together for the witness of the execution of the infamous planet-killer,  
  
Samus Aran!" There was cheering abound. They clearly didn't want Samus to  
  
be the destroyer of their world. They also had the idea that everything to  
  
Samus' name in the planet trade would belong to their glorious Emperor Artic.  
  
22 new worlds to raze and sell, or enslave in a do-or-die-utterly business  
  
deal. "Now...begin the activation sequence...and lower the field!"  
  
The Metroid at the controls had done so...and the energy field that was  
  
to burn off her head like a blade was slowly creeping toward her head.  
  
Samus shifted her head and pleadingly looked at the Metroid (an Omega, by the  
  
way), which seemed to wink at her with one of the eight eyes that it had.  
  
"YOU CALL THIS AN EXECUTION?! WHAT, ARE YOU WAITING FOR HER TO BEG FOR   
  
MERCY?!?!?! JUST END IT ALREADY!!!" The crowd looked around to see where  
  
the bellowing sounds came from, but Samus looked up. It was Keaton's ruse,  
  
and his part of the plan. Everyone in the city was protected inside the  
  
shields of the palace, so Keaton could only attack the city itself. "IF  
  
YOU DON'T END THIS ON THE COUNT OF 5, I BEGIN FIRING FULL FORCE!!! ONE!!!"  
  
The crowds seemed to panic (TWO!!!) as the announcement was made, but Artic  
  
calmed them with a notification that nothing was going to touch the palace.  
  
(THREE!!!) The blade was three-quarters of the way down to Samus when the  
  
Metroid pounded the controls (FOUR!!!), causing the lock on Samus' head to  
  
open. (FIVE!!!) The most extreme light show of the reddest neon color was  
  
erupting, splashing on the shields of the palace, even, and possibly weaken-  
  
ing them.  
  
"SET ALL SHIELDS AROUND THE PEOPLE, WE MUST COUNTERATTACK!"  
  
"SAMUS IS LOOSE! SAMUS IS LOOSE!!" Some of the soldiers ducked as Diffusion  
  
Missiles went sailing into the walls, freezing areas of the palace and closing  
  
off entryways. She ran up the wall using the Speed Booster and jumped. With  
  
her odd angle, she was apparently flying horizontally with her back facing  
  
the ground. She sailed towards the spaceport, knowing that Adam was going to  
  
be there, and it was the one spot that Keaton hadn't hit. With the shields  
  
reconcentrated, it was time for the next phase of Keaton's assault. He was  
  
going to cover for Samus and give her time. Even if he felt like he was in  
  
her shadow of infamy, he was going to be the most important part of the plot.  
  
It's was going down in history as "Samus' Escape".  
  
----------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Samus had returned to Alpha Centauri to see that Gul'Gen and Houston  
  
and Ryu Ookazi were standing in the docking bay, waiting for her.   
  
She removed her helmet and began to walk to her apartment, not saying a   
  
word.  
  
'Stupid Ridley...stupid Ridley...stupid Ridley...it's no wonder he  
  
always lost to me every encounter. He was always making the poorly  
  
calculated rush forward. He should have known that I'd be back...'  
  
Samus opens the apartment door and flops onto the couch, still wearing  
  
her Power Suit, and covers her head with a pillow. Houston walks in,  
  
but Gul'Gen didn't follow, he had something he wanted to say and a few  
  
questions to ask to Royce. Houston moves to pull the pillow away from  
  
Samus' head when he hears her muffled voice.  
  
"Houston, don't you even dare." Houston moves to the kitchen and pours  
  
a fresh coffee cup. He would usually put sugar into it if it was the  
  
regular black, but it was some kind of fancy one this time.  
  
'Oh, good. I can't stand black...it tastes moldy.' He sits at the   
  
table and continues to think about a decent, even if screwed up, speech  
  
for Ridley's funeral.  
  
Samus was too upset to care that she had left the door wide open, when  
  
she heard a funny voice echoing down the hallway. She sits up, making  
  
the pillow fall onto her lap, and looks out the doorway.  
  
"Kefka, Kefka, Kefka! I am The Kefka! Kefka, Kefka. Oh! Hello,   
  
Samus! Where's Rid-" Samus leaps off the couch and grabs Kefka by  
  
the throat.  
  
"Don't even bother to say his name right now. Didn't hear about it  
  
from the inner circle?" Kefka pries Samus' hands away easily.  
  
"Inner..oh! That. Actually, he's still around. I know it."  
  
Samus looks at Kefka.  
  
"Uh...how? Ridley's dead." Houston peeks out the wet-bar.  
  
"Maybe he's a ghost!" Samus whirls around and walks over to the  
  
kitchen.  
  
"HOUSTON! Two things that I have to say this about...HOW DARE YOU!!"  
  
Houston cringes. "You open the wet-bar shutters, AND still find time  
  
to wisecrack about Ridley being DEAD?!"  
  
"Well, actually...Hardy opened the wet-bar, but I didn't tell him that  
  
you didn't like it open."  
  
"I won't yell at Hardy for it. He doesn't live here, so he didn't know  
  
better." Houston shrugs. Neither noticed Hardy enter, but Kefka steps  
  
aside.  
  
"He said it was to keep an eye on Ridley before the dumb dragon went to  
  
try and find you." Hardy piped up and startled Samus and Houston.  
  
"Indeed he was. When I told Keaton about it, he just insulted Ridley.  
  
He said 'Fine by me, if he wants to end his illustrious record of evil  
  
there.' But after putting that announcement aside, the Federation is  
  
going to a new planet soon! It's populated, but unaware of our   
  
existence, so it's classified as under-developed by law. It's...also  
  
on the fringes, too, which means that we have a long trip." Samus  
  
looks at Hardy with partial exhaustion and sighs.  
  
"I just got back from SR388 -and- a jaunt with the planet trade, can't I   
  
have a break? Besides, I'm not in the mood, so why not just go with   
  
Houston, Royce, and Kefka?" Hardy twiddles his thumbs and looks down.  
  
"I would, but we can't find Royce anywhere."  
  
------------------------  
  
Gul'Gen walks down an alley seeing patches of some kind of organic  
  
substance as he turns a corner to a warehouse that was ripped open  
  
obviously by Royce's real form. The place was deserted, and had been,  
  
since it was nearly impossible to reach. He peers inside the hole in  
  
the wall and looks around. If Royce wasn't in here, then why did she  
  
tear this building open? He takes two steps in and hears a thud.  
  
Whirling around to stare face-to-face with a Zeta Metroid. It just  
  
looked at him for a moment and then uttered something in a slurred  
  
dialect of his native language. Gul'Gen stood aside from the Queen-  
  
made entrance and looked around more. Two nests. Both had four eggs,  
  
all hatched.  
  
"Hmh...Samus-san...I wonder...why did you think that you killed the  
  
Queen when she faked you out? It doesn't matter. The Metroids are  
  
our people's brainchild. Whether they lived or died probably didn't  
  
matter then, but it does now. Now that there lives a menace that only  
  
they can fight." Gul'Gen hears a squeak and a roar and sees a Metroid  
  
fly past him, stopping for a moment and then floating towards him. He  
  
starts to tremble as it gets inches away from him.  
  
"Stop. He is not our food." Gul'Gen turns around to find Royce  
  
standing six feet away, with two Omega Metroids on each side.  
  
"Miiieee...Skree! Hwee!" The Metroid bumps into Gul'Gen and flies  
  
back into the tunnel, obviously agitated.  
  
"We have nearly been without prey. The X started to appear on this  
  
station moments before my children's rebirth, but their numbers have  
  
declined. They have either found hosts, or gone into hiding, knowing  
  
that we are here...in any case, they know we are here." Gul'Gen looks  
  
behind for a moment.  
  
"If they have found hosts, they could lead the Federation to you. I  
  
don't want you to be chased away, but...can I ask you a few things?"  
  
Royce sits on a crate, the two Omegas watching her.  
  
"They're both silent. Trained like Buckingham Palace guards. What  
  
did you want to ask?" Gul'Gen sits across from her.  
  
"Well...I wanted to ask you why you came out so straight-forward to  
  
us. Why you've been popping in and out at the times we least expect.  
  
Why it feels to me like you can't tell a lie."  
  
"To answer your first question, I came out of hiding because of the X.  
  
To answer your second question, I've been nesting, as you can see.  
  
To answer your last...I -can't- tell a lie. Is that all?" Gul'Gen  
  
cringed slightly. No, that wasn't all. She could even tell that.  
  
"It's written all over your face that you have many more questions."  
  
"...I do...but some of them I didn't want to ask."  
  
-------------------------  
  
Keaton had gathered Hardy, Houston, Samus, Gul'Gen, and Royce into a  
  
conference room. He wanted to hear the 'bad news' about Artic's Iron  
  
Curtain between the planet trade and the Federation. His suspicions  
  
told him that it wasn't over yet. His feelings were that of a   
  
politician having to make a retirement speech. Things had gone so  
  
awry since Ridley went to Chauda. The X started to appear on Alpha  
  
Centauri, and so did Metroids. Everyone was aware of what was going  
  
on. Something like a bad joke, yeah, that was it. Ever since Keaton  
  
assigned Samus and company to retrieve Royce Felder of B.S.L. from  
  
SR388, things just seemed to spiral into chaos quickly. Two days,  
  
and already the public was in panic. It didn't even go down this fast  
  
when Acuar was attacked...or Tsebnash. Keaton cleared his throat.  
  
"I'll skip the speech for all our sakes and we'll cut to the chase.  
  
Gul'Gen?" The old Chozo looked at the other five.  
  
"As you will soon know, Artic proposed an Iron Curtain. This keeps us   
  
protected from the planet trade, but they did this out of fear. Fear of   
  
the X. Artic had reported that two X parasites had infected some of their   
  
men and caused utter chaos until the clones of the parasites were detained  
  
in cryo-stasis. Since Artic doesn't know how to fight the X without a Metroid,   
  
he had proposed a quarantine order disguised as a treaty." Samus looks at  
  
Gul'Gen.  
  
"That must have been the SA-X. I don't remember it well."   
  
Gul'Gen looks down.  
  
"There are X parasites in Alpha Centauri, and possibly in other places as   
  
well. We don't know where else they could be, either." Houston taps the table.  
  
"Yeah. There were two dragon clones and a Core-X of Schneider."  
  
Samus turns and stands up.  
  
"WHAT?! How did Schneider get infected?" Houston rambles about the  
  
things that the Core-X in Schneider's body had told them before fleeing  
  
and Ridley taking off for Chauda. Two of Ridley's kind, and a clone of  
  
Schneider to deal with? Samus wasn't mad, and wasn't furious, either.  
  
She was so overcome with a seething hatred that she couldn't stay in  
  
the room a moment longer.  
  
Keaton watches Samus burst out of the chamber and run off. To where,  
  
he didn't know. But he was still thinking good riddance for a moment,  
  
and then he turned pea green. What if the people were afraid of an  
  
angry Samus? 


	9. The New Aran

Chapter 9: The New Aran  
  
Lex adapted rather well to living with her sister, Houston, and Ryu Ookazi.   
  
It was only a week and she was already being addressed like she was there   
  
all the time. Ryu was a different story, because he wasn't familiar or   
  
even well-connecting to Samus. In fact, he irritated her a lot. Whenever  
  
she muttered 'Stupid Ridley' he wanted to comfort her, but he wasn't even  
  
let a mile near her. He wished he knew where Leah was hiding...and hoped  
  
that Royce or an X hadn't found her first.  
  
His worry changed to relief when he was sent a message using the name  
  
L.a as the sender. It had only an address on it, and he memorized it before  
  
deleting the message, so Samus wouldn't see it.  
  
-------------------------  
  
Kefka had almost decided to follow Ryu to where he was going, but her sporting  
  
side got in the way of her conscience yet again, and she ended up following  
  
Ryu anyway. She stopped in front of a complex that was in the only red-light  
  
sector of the station. Ryu might have gone inside, but she wasn't going to  
  
test 'dragon territory'. Even she knew who Ryu was.   
  
"No fooling Kefka with a cheap demi-human disguise, Ridley. Uwee, haa, haa,  
  
haaa!!"  
  
-------------------------  
  
Ryu sat down on the couch and looked at the TV. Those were the only   
  
furniture that they took from the place on Icerra. Leah sat next to him,  
  
close enough to make him shift as though uncomfortable, but he fought that  
  
urge as she moved to grab his hand and talk.  
  
"I'm sorry that we dropped out of communication for a while. I was just  
  
trying to find a spot to settle in that had Max-Net access built in. It  
  
was tough, but doable. I'm really shocked that there was such a location  
  
here. I know that it's dangerously close to the Metroids, but better to  
  
deal with them than the X, right? Besides...I have this to give you."  
  
She held out a Scouter. "I have my other one in the bedroom. Ginyu let  
  
me have this, just before we left. He said he could get another one.  
  
It's got a constant communicator with a radius of 500 miles. It's fairly  
  
loud when not on your ear, too, so you can hear if someone's sending a  
  
message."  
  
"...You want me to have this...why? I can't fight Metroids."  
  
"You can help me escape. Once all this business involving the X is over,  
  
I can go anywhere I want. And you could go with me, too." Ryu had his  
  
reservations about that. He didn't like that Leah was being so taboo with  
  
Samus. Must have been one of those things that irritated her about him.  
  
He didn't once mention Leah to Samus when she asked about Leah from him.  
  
He knew that if she would get over her fear of being Samus' next target,  
  
she would be at her absolute safest there. No need for hiding.  
  
"..."  
  
"Promise me, Ridley...you won't ever tell Samus about me, will you? I'm dead  
  
to her now, anyway. It's in the records, for my own safety."  
  
'Your safety is in the biggest jeopardy I can imagine...and it is because  
  
you are scared of your own daughter. You are scared to tell the truth, and  
  
it is because you lied to her as a child.' He remembered that dream of   
  
Mah'aren again, and clenched his empty hand into a fist. He heard a shuffle  
  
behind him and whirled around to see the Old Bird standing there.  
  
"Ridley." Old Bird crossed his legs on the floor, sitting between Ryu and  
  
Leah. "I must have noticed your energy close by, it is hard to miss anymore.  
  
You know...I was over in the Metroid lair a little while ago. Dangerous  
  
without Royce, but still pleasant. Anyway...I wanted to say something to  
  
you. I don't care who is with you, but I must say it.  
  
"You are unstable. Caught in twist and turn of cruel fate, and the demons  
  
of your past threaten to reinitialize the control over you that Mother Brain  
  
once had. I am afraid, however, that this is because Mother Brain is back,  
  
and trying to control you again. I know you, Ridley. You seek solace to  
  
your grief, and cannot find it. Alone, are you? Unloved, you think you are?  
  
"This is not true. Samus cared too much for you. When you showed that you  
  
were of a human-like soul, and tormented by youth, she thought of you in a  
  
far different manner. You should have been more responsible, admittedly, but  
  
now is a time of revelation...for both of you. Leah...Ridley...what do you  
  
say to me?" Leah leaned back.  
  
"Blah, blah, you feather-head. I'm not going to face Samus." The Old Bird's  
  
face seemed to darken.  
  
"Like it or not, you will. If you choose not to...then you will regret not  
  
having told her you still lived. You will find yourself unable to come to  
  
terms with yourself. Fear will keep you in this realm the next life."  
  
"...I don't want to tell Samus...I think she might kill me."  
  
"I have one thing to say to that, Ridley. You be dragon, immortal and   
  
invincible to any other less than you. She cannot kill you, physically or  
  
astrally." Gul'Gen nodded. "Your body's genetic construct will not allow  
  
you to die by the sword unless you choose to."  
  
"...So Ridley's got nothing to lose, eh?"  
  
"Yes...and you have everything to lose if you don't act soon."  
  
--------------------------  
  
Ryu was back, and hiding from Samus only to surprise her. He was going to  
  
tell her everything. Even if Leah wouldn't come out herself, he would tell  
  
her about Leah. He wouldn't tell her where Leah was, but he was going to  
  
reveal that she was still alive. He didn't need Lex to prove it, either.  
  
Samus entered her bedroom after getting into a tiff with Adam about a mission  
  
allotment when just after she turned the light off, she saw something   
  
familiar.  
  
Glowing eyes. Yellow eyes. Only one person had those. She scrambled for  
  
the light and turned it on to see Ryu standing there. She sat upright on her  
  
bed.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"To tell you something. A lot of things, really." Samus looked at Ryu with  
  
her usual mask of irritation.  
  
"What is it? I'm tired, and I think that you just want to leave me with a  
  
sleepless night. If you're here to piss me off then-"  
  
"Leave? I don't care if I make you mad." He could see her anger rise. "No,  
  
I'm not here for that reason. That is not my intent."  
  
"Then get on with it." Ryu sat in a chair.  
  
"Where do I begin? How do I put it?"  
  
"How about with you...and I don't care how."  
  
"Alright. You know how Ridley got attacked by a Core-X, right?" Samus nods.  
  
"Well...just after the infection, before it reached the nervous system...he  
  
detached his soul from that body, and moved to a new body. He's still alive."  
  
"How does this have anything to do with you?"  
  
"I am that body. I am Ridley. This was the last body that I had created for  
  
me, and I have put so many failsafes against death that I have to will my  
  
end to come in order to die here." Ryu looked down. "I...don't know how they  
  
work in certain circumstances, and whether or not they will be dangerous to  
  
you."  
  
"Why?" Ryu looked up at Samus.  
  
"Why what?"  
  
"Why this? Why did you hide from me? Why didn't you say anything while we  
  
were on Icerra? Why did you disappear this evening?"  
  
"Why a human body? Because...the form I had was too artificial, and too   
  
crude, to utilize anything that I developed as a special power. I was close  
  
to a predatorial savage to do anything. Nothing really beyond my body's own  
  
power. A human body also has a human brain, yes? I feel that it will be  
  
much more effective than that of a bestial monster. I don't want to put fear  
  
into anyone anymore. I even gave myself a different name...I guess, why I hid  
  
was because I didn't want to be Ridley except to those that I reveal myself  
  
to. I didn't say anything to you while on Icerra because..." Ryu trailed  
  
off.  
  
"What?" Samus was now interested in listening to Ridley. He wasn't the  
  
monster that everyone saw before. In fact, to others and maybe even to  
  
Ridley/Ryu, Ridley/Ridley died there on Chauda.  
  
"Now comes the bigger shock. I didn't want to reveal that the planet trade  
  
lied about your mother in order to hide her. They didn't just cart her off  
  
the colony that they were attacking to clear the surface of. They faked her  
  
birth complications, though she did admit to passing out just after the  
  
birth. Leah's still alive, also. She wanted me to shoot her, to keep from  
  
me ever revealing that she is alive. I wouldn't do it."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I...don't know, honestly. I never wanted to hurt her, even when she deliber-  
  
ately wanted to hurt, even kill herself. I wanted her to live without fear  
  
of anything...not even you." Samus looked at Ryu.  
  
"And...your reason for saying this is...what? Are you going to turn around  
  
and try to kill me just so she doesn't have to live in fear of my shadow?!"  
  
Ryu shook his head. "No. Samus. I don't want you to hunt her. Don't kill  
  
her. Don't...judge her. Please." Samus laughed.  
  
"From the sound of this, it's almost as though you want to protect someone  
  
you love. Well, this is rich. I don't want to have you for a father-in-law,  
  
in all honesty."  
  
"Ggh! I'm not marrying her! God, do you think I WANT her? I want her to  
  
live, dammit!"  
  
"And? Who DO you love then?"  
  
"I...don't know. I don't know."  
  
"What about you first?" Ryu shook his head.  
  
"I'm not conceited. I don't hold that to me."  
  
"If you don't love you, who will? I don't. You're too stupid."  
  
"And what makes me stupid?"  
  
"You won't even let yourself go...for anything. You try to do what you can  
  
to help or protect us, and you don't even go to any lengths to please   
  
yourself? What about you? Do you think that you'll be happy trying to  
  
protect us? It will tear you apart. It already does."  
  
"Mm." Ryu stammered out. "I don't want to talk about it."  
  
"If you don't tell me, I won't know why you're being so over-protective."  
  
"..."  
  
"This is important to me, Ridley. Please? Houston and Lex are in other  
  
rooms, I promise that no one will bother us."  
  
"Fine. It was the day I was exiled from my homeworld. The day I was deemed  
  
too weak and obstinate for them. One of the current Ginyus, a dragon called  
  
Mah'aren, was killing my little sister. He held her in a neckhold that   
  
certainly would have choked her to death, but lack of air was not enough.  
  
His tail is covered in venomous barbs. Each as lethal as a cobra's fang.  
  
Each...oddly enough even looking like fangs. While he held her in a way  
  
that guaranteed her death, I could do nothing. I knew what he was capable  
  
of, and that he would have killed me too if I had tried to protect her.  
  
I was called too weak because I couldn't fight him. I was called too  
  
obstinate because 'I didn't care if my sister died'. I -did- care, Samus.  
  
I just couldn't do anything..." Samus just nodded.  
  
"I see. Well, anyway, I'm not your little sister. I know you out-age me by  
  
decades, but, I'm not related to you. You don't need to protect me. Help  
  
me, yes, but don't protect me."  
  
"...Samus." Ryu got up from his chair and moved up close to her. He  
  
reached for her and kissed her on the lips for about 15 seconds. In her  
  
shock and bewilderment, as well as not thinking about anything better to  
  
do to Ryu, she slapped him.  
  
--------------------------  
  
'Well, count on the one woman who's a -woman-...to sell me straight on what  
  
my tastes are. Nah well. I'll find my match someday.' Ryu thought as he  
  
walked down the street. He turned and began to head down the industrial  
  
sector, seeing the very noticeable Hardy going that way. He also noticed  
  
Samus and Royce, and stopped. He hid behind a corner.  
  
"Right, well...as you know, we have a plan for getting rid of the X on this  
  
station. Our message from Schneider is that he needs a means of transport  
  
for all of the parasites. All of them. Seeing as how we could give him  
  
such in a matter of a little while, and that they might very well all obey  
  
him, no matter what form, we might be able to trap them somewhere."  
  
"Thing is, where do we trap them? We can't send them back to SR388. I did  
  
enough damage to those plans."  
  
"We know. Funny thing is, you were charged for nothing. You owned that  
  
planet." Samus gapes. Right...who in their right mind charges someone with  
  
the destruction of their own property? "Admittedly, they didn't look into  
  
the whole spiel of 'destroying planet' laws, but they wanted you dead, Samus.  
  
You are not just a Chozo DNA hybrid. You're also part Metroid and part X.  
  
The X part is well put away, however, and seeing as it's a Core-X, it won't  
  
obey Schneider. You're safe either way." Samus folds her arms.  
  
"They want me dead because I'm a proverbial chimera."  
  
"No...well yes, but the thing is...you are...and were...not an Earth-type  
  
human. You're what is called Gene Altar. They are a legendary race, and  
  
assimilate any DNA put into them to their own genome. I believe that you  
  
are more threat to them for that reason than any other. They are afraid  
  
that you might have what they call 'monkey blood'." Samus' face lit.  
  
"They think that I'm part Saiya-jin? I wish. You know, I wouldn't need  
  
this Fusion Suit and I could kick Ridley's cherry-colored candy ass with  
  
ease. Gods, I'd love that. Just disintegrate Mother Brain with a blast."  
  
They all laughed.  
  
"Anywhoo, we need a ship...and no, we're not using the Pork Roast, either."  
  
"Then what?" Royce asked. "You can't possibly build a new one."  
  
"Keaton has two ships. Excelsion is the bigger one, but Excalibur should  
  
be perfect. Excalibur he's not as attached to, because he remembers every  
  
last piece of schematic. He could rebuild it again if he wanted to.  
  
Excelsion, however...his boss, the real big cheeze of the Federation, gave  
  
him that ship. He doesn't want to lose that. It's her representative  
  
symbol of being in Centauri Sector...and he, goodness knows, would get  
  
sacked for losing it."  
  
"Then use the Excelsion." Hardy looks at Samus and Royce in panic.  
  
"T-t-t-t-tch! I don't want him hearing that! He'll have my head! I know,  
  
popular opinion leans heavily against Keaton being Chairman much longer-"  
  
"Quite heavily, considering how -you- rallied a civil dispute over Ridley."  
  
Hardy grinned at that. Another fat joke, but he did cause holy hell for  
  
Keaton.  
  
"I've decided to use Excalibur. It's no big loss to any of us. Not at all."  
  
-----------------------  
  
Schneider was also overhearing Hardy's plan. He had eyes in Samus, the only  
  
way he could use her, and had all bets that Hardy was telling Samus, knowing  
  
full well that he was telling Schneider as well. Oh well, he had made clear  
  
his demands through Samus that morning...he wasted no time in getting to the  
  
Excalibur, calling all the parasites that he could. Samus, however, needed  
  
a different calling.  
  
He was going to send them all to the one place that she was hated most.  
  
He was going to give them invincibility.  
  
He was going to give them...revenge. 


	10. Battle on Icerra

Chapter 10: Battle on Icerra  
  
"Samus-san...there's a problem. Schneider's...gone after  
  
the Icers on purpose. He wants to use them to get rid of  
  
us!" Samus crosses her arms.  
  
"I had a feeling that we were giving him a cute little  
  
improvisation. Schneider might be a scumbag, but he's still  
  
intelligent, I'll give him that."  
  
---------------------  
  
Samus had followed Gul'Gen to the warehouse that Royce was  
  
using as a nesting ground for repopulating the Metroids.  
  
She had never seen such an place before, it wasn't even on  
  
the station map. But with a hole the size of who knows what,  
  
she thought that even an idiot would soon know about a way  
  
inside. They both walk inside to see Royce gathering the  
  
other Metroids.  
  
"I've already found out about what happened. Hardy called."  
  
Samus looks around for a moment.  
  
"This place...there are tunnels everywhere. You did this?"  
  
"They lead to all the major locations, places where we had  
  
assumed the X would be around. And they had been until  
  
recently. We've got problems if the planet trade, or the  
  
Icers get attacked by the X."  
  
"Politically, and survivalistically."  
  
----------------------  
  
The 'Pork Roast' was ready for departure to head to the  
  
planet Icerra to, if at all possible because of the X  
  
having a head start, intercept the ship that they had  
  
stolen for their use of hostile measure.  
  
It hadn't occured to Samus that the X clone of Ryu  
  
spoke about commiting genocide to save the Federation  
  
again. She didn't care, the X were a real threat. To  
  
take the chance at trying to become powerful enough to  
  
destroy all Metroids and rule the universe without any  
  
doubt, that was the sign of real villianry. But the X  
  
were just parasites. How could they have a mind that  
  
was conscious enough to speak, let alone obliterate?  
  
The X weren't sentient, and she had thought that the  
  
Metroids weren't, until Gul'Gen had told her more than  
  
she learned about the Metroids while on Chauda. The  
  
'Pork Roast' took off at top speed for Icerra after  
  
leaving the vicinity of Alpha Centauri Station.  
  
----------------------  
  
Inside of a dark chamber of the palace of Emperor Artic,  
  
far deeper in than the throne room, a haggard old man  
  
sits inside of a hovering chair laden with buttons on  
  
two panels near his arms. He lets out a demented  
  
laugh nearly every few seconds. Artic walks inside of  
  
the chamber.  
  
"What is it, Your Majesty?" The old man says the last  
  
two words in indignation.  
  
"Dr. Akyasuma, your plan is being carried out?"  
  
The old man leans into the light, his face extremly  
  
wrinkled and slightly baggy. His eyes looked like  
  
he was always angry as his eyelids were barely open.  
  
He also wore a weird looking black hat, one that  
  
looked like tiny Mickey Mouse ears.  
  
"Indeed. You and your people shall never die in  
  
combat any longer. You saw the power of these,  
  
my precious creations...the X. The Metroids were an  
  
obstacle as they and their energy-leeching powers are  
  
the only thing that can destroy them. They should  
  
have been destroyed. Every last one of them. But my  
  
parasites have begun to fail in the objectives that I  
  
set for them...so I use my backup...you shall not need  
  
the Dragonballs for immortality-my parasites will be  
  
your immortality...and so...Emperor..." He says this  
  
last word with the same tone as the last title. "I now  
  
give you an on-hand demonstration. Hahahahahahaha!"  
  
A gigantic Core-X floats up from behind Akyasuma and  
  
flies into Artic, devouring him and then assuming his  
  
form. Akyasuma lets out a sadistic laugh as he watches  
  
Artic's face contort in terror, giving him the impression  
  
that he was ultimately lied to in the end. Artic was  
  
dying at the hands of this Core-X...and it was taking his  
  
likeness for itself.  
  
----------------------  
  
Samus and the others were all on edge as they approached  
  
Icerra. The ship was nowhere in sight the whole time.  
  
Hardy decided to land the Pork Roast inside of the palace  
  
court, which was admirably large enough for Keaton's own  
  
heavy cruiser. This meant of course, that Hardy's would  
  
barely fit, as Hardy's counted as a super-heavy. Ryu  
  
made a wisecrack once saying that everything about Hardy  
  
was like Texas, it was always bigger.  
  
They had all gotten outside of the ship and scanned the  
  
area for the X. The palace grounds were empty, and the  
  
only life readings were almost in the center of the   
  
imperial abode. Well, aside of a few scattered readings.  
  
The Metroids rushed in first to catch any X that dared to  
  
assault, followed by Samus and the others.  
  
They had reached a pair of doors with one lone, yet large  
  
in height, Icer standing in front of them. He cracked a  
  
grin.  
  
"You can't defeat us by any means. We have become more  
  
powerful thanks to a little contribution." Samus armed  
  
her Super Missiles and fired one at the Icer's head.  
  
The missile exploded and the body had reformed into an  
  
X. A large purple one. Two Omegas both tackled and  
  
absorbed it, and pushed the door open to see Emperor  
  
Artic and Schneider side by side. Schneider, spotting  
  
Aran, ran off to the innermost chamber along with Artic.  
  
A flood of X parasites came out of the vent above as  
  
Samus used her Speed Booster to get behind them. That  
  
swarm was gonna be occupied with dodging the Metroids.  
  
'Hopefully Hardy and the others have gone back by now.'  
  
Royce watched Hardy and the others run from the X that  
  
were chasing them before she grabs all of them and flings  
  
them back into the throne room. Running through the chaos,  
  
she goes after Samus to see where she and the two antagonists  
  
were going to.   
  
-----------------------------  
  
Samus stopped inside of a large room, where only Artic  
  
stood. She scanned the area to see if Schneider was  
  
hiding somewhere.  
  
"There are no surprises. Come out of the doorway  
  
before I let it crush your head. Schneider has gone  
  
in the other direction, so you deal with me." Artic  
  
folds his arms in front of him.  
  
"Think that you're such a big shot just because you've  
  
got the Icers' leader, eh? I wonder where you get your  
  
sense of awareness." She fires ten Super Missiles at  
  
Artic, which all stop ten feet away from him and explode.  
  
"Where did you get yours? I can't be destroyed using  
  
your conventional weapons. I'll have to ask you to  
  
remove your Power Suit if you want to stand a chance  
  
against me."  
  
'What, is he nuts?' Samus switches back to her beam  
  
cannon and fires several blasts from her Ice Beam at  
  
Artic. This sort of worked, as the beams had actually  
  
hit him, but it looked as though he wasn't even affected  
  
by them.  
  
Artic shakes off the icicles from his body and charges  
  
at Samus with a flurry of punches that she didn't see  
  
coming and couldn't block. He finishes by kicking her  
  
high up into the air, almost to the ceiling. She turns  
  
around after setting her beam to Wave and firing non-stop  
  
at Artic, who was flying up to Samus dodging every blast.  
  
She kicked Artic in the face and fires three shots at  
  
point-blank range.  
  
'If that didn't get him, then...' The body starts to  
  
phase back into the Core-X but reforms back to Artic.  
  
'Aw, rats.' She fires seven more Wave Beams and lands on  
  
her feet after reaching the ground. Artic lands on his  
  
back and flips up to stand only to be greeting with a  
  
Super Missile to his chest. The body dissolves into the  
  
Core-X and Samus begins to volley Super Missiles at it.  
  
----------------------  
  
Royce was heading down the other pathway after seeing the  
  
shutter behind Samus close and lock. She stopped inside  
  
of the dark chamber, watching the door shut behind and  
  
lights beginning to activate around the edge of the room  
  
on the bottom. A large, bright spotlight shone from under  
  
the glassy floor underneath of Dr. Akyasuma. He lets out  
  
a small chuckle as he looks up at Royce.  
  
"Hail...to the Queen Metroid, who has finally met her  
  
end..." Royce looks at Schneider, who was standing beside  
  
Akyasuma. He stays where he is while Akyasuma backs away.  
  
"I suppose that you already know?"  
  
"Know what?" Akyasuma's baggy face curls into a weird  
  
grin.  
  
"Know that the X are my creation. It was I who made the  
  
Icers, too. No nature-made species could ever go into  
  
outer space and expect to survive. Not one single thing  
  
about nature involved outer space! Ha! But I am one of  
  
the greatest minds. Insane and evil, yes, but still..."  
  
He breaks off into a laugh as Schneider tries to attack  
  
Royce with everything that he had.  
  
Royce would sometimes see an opening in Schneider's  
  
fruitless onslaught and fire a small blast of energy at  
  
him. Only after he had noticed that he was out of  
  
Missiles did he get blasted by a large Hyper Beam that  
  
came from the locked door. Samus barged in and started  
  
to shoot the Core-X with a constant stream of energy  
  
blasts.  
  
"Royce! There's a really big X in the other room!  
  
Better take care of business!" Royce turns around and  
  
runs down the hallway to see the giant X sailing right  
  
at her. She catches and starts to absorb the parasite.  
  
"Stupid. This is a fitting end to a monstrous species."  
  
It tries to resist Royce but miserably fails at the last  
  
moment.  
  
The Core-X after being turned into a vulnerable blob  
  
fled by crashing through the floor and escaping in a  
  
narrow duct. Akyasuma had escaped, too, but only  
  
during Royce's short battle with Schneider.  
  
He had gone down a different hallway and around when  
  
he ran into Royce, who was heading to the 'Pork Roast'.  
  
"This was only a setback, you! If you Metroids were  
  
extinct, then I would rule everything! I'll just  
  
nip your proliferation in the BUD!!" Akyasuma holds  
  
up a small phaser-like object and a long yellow beam  
  
protrudes from it, piercing Royce in the right side  
  
of her chest. She stumbled and landed on the Core-X  
  
that popped out from the duct behind her. It made a  
  
kind of gurgling noise before Royce grabbed and had  
  
absorbed it with some of what strength she had left.  
  
She was only pierced by a Plasma Lancer, that wasn't  
  
gonna stop her from killing every last X and then the  
  
looney scientist that created them. She ran after the  
  
fleeing old man leaving a trail of blood.  
  
"You won't catch me in time! Haugh!" Akyasuma runs  
  
right into Hardy's arm, clotheslining himself out of  
  
his hoverchair. His entire lower half was all, to the  
  
shock of those who saw it, machinery. Royce stopped  
  
running after seeing Hardy hold the feeble robot up  
  
to handcuff it. She fainted just when Samus arrived  
  
in the room. Hardy sees the small yet gaping hole in  
  
her chest.  
  
"Uh-oh. We need a medic, and now!" 


	11. The Unsanctioned Planet

Kefka: Chapter 11 - Bankruptcy...hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!  
  
Samus: NOT!  
  
Chapter 11: The Unsanctioned Planet  
  
Excelsion landed on the planet that was given the name  
  
Green by those who had been there. Even though the  
  
people of that world had called it Earth. Several of  
  
the Federation diplomats, all of which had been to that  
  
planet to talk about joining the Federation because of  
  
it being in a semi-developed state, had heard the people  
  
of Green call their world Earth. They had no idea on  
  
who would represent the planet though.  
  
Keaton, out of sheer luck, or his 'sense of politics' as  
  
he called it, had gone to West City and met the wealthiest  
  
family on the planet, and the contribution to Green's state  
  
of semi-development, (meaning space travel is possible but  
  
not commonplace.) the Briefs. The meeting had been arranged  
  
to take place in three weeks, and anyone from Green was more  
  
than welcome to stay until the meeting. The daughter had  
  
agreed to this, while her father wanted to stay back and  
  
continue to work on a prototype spaceship based on a pod that  
  
had crashed almost 20-25 years ago. She had thought of also  
  
inviting a few other people along.  
  
"Excuse me, young lady, but may I ask your name?" Keaton had  
  
asked the daughter of Mr. Breifs.  
  
"Oh. It's Bulma. And let's see...who did I want to come  
  
along? Oh yes!" She puts her left fist into the other hand.  
  
"Goku and Chi-Chi! I'm sure that they won't mind going with  
  
me! Krillin, too..." 'And that pervert, Roshi, also...I'll  
  
just appeal to his "studliness" by saying that there will be  
  
lots of other women out there. Yamcha...' Bulma shakes her  
  
head. "Naw, not Yamcha. He's been a real jerk last week."  
  
"You have everyone in mind?" Bulma procures a capsule and  
  
clicks the button on the top.  
  
"Yep." She throws the capsule to the ground and it bursts  
  
into a big cloud of smoke. After the smoke clears, a plane  
  
stands gleaming in the sunlight and yellow paint, with the  
  
Capsule Corp. logo emblazeoned on both sides. She climbs  
  
into the seat and looks at Keaton. "I won't be but a few  
  
hours, so hold tight, okay?" Keaton shrugs.  
  
"Fine with me. I'd like to see what all your father has  
  
made, anyway." Mrs. Breifs walks up to the scene and sees  
  
Bulma take off, while still holding her tea tray.  
  
"Oh! Then he can tell you all about our advents over tea!"  
  
----------------------  
  
The mission was successful, the X were finally dealt with,  
  
and as an added bonus, the Imperial Family of Icers, a  
  
member of the planet trade, was put out of commission. Samus  
  
couldn't have been more satisfied by this. Royce was under  
  
treatment for her injury and the others were safe. And the  
  
mad scientist that made the X was going to be executed in the  
  
scrapper, she had also hoped.  
  
Her thoughts of victory were dragged back to her as Hardy was  
  
receiving a message from Keaton.  
  
"You were right in asking me about sanctioning this planet.  
  
There are some rather amazing things here. Oh, yes...I've  
  
just got to tell you what all I've seen when we get back!  
  
Bulma should be here any moment with an envoy for her  
  
representation."  
  
----------------------  
  
Bulma was a bit agitated because of some of her company.  
  
When Krillin had asked if Yamcha was coming along, she  
  
got mad at his insistence. Piccolo had followed Goku  
  
all the way to West City by himself, saying that he  
  
didn't want Goku to leave until he could settle the  
  
score. Bulma had also discovered that Goku had a son,  
  
Gohan, as did everyone else aboard the plane. Goku,  
  
being his thick-headed and innocent, yet still brilliant  
  
Saiya-jin self, asked Piccolo to come along when he had  
  
heard about the Federation Tournament of Fighters from  
  
Keaton, who probably blabbed about it on purpose, since  
  
most of who were coming along were martial artists.  
  
Piccolo accepted and the group that was from Green filed  
  
onto the ship, followed by Keaton.  
  
----------------------  
  
Off on the planet Frieza, several thousands of Frieza's  
  
men, even all the Ginyus that Freiza hired, were  
  
celebrating the crippling blow to the planet trade.  
  
Freiza, along with his family, was killed by the Metroids,  
  
and the most infamous bounty hunter in the galaxy, Samus  
  
Aran. This piqued the interest of three Saiya-jin warriors  
  
that were under Frieza's service. They had climbed into  
  
three pods and flew off to Alpha Centauri, where Aku'Hokky  
  
said that the Federation Tournament of Fighters was.  
  
"Hey...Vegeta...what do you think we'll do when we get  
  
there?" A short humanoid wearing blue full-body spandex  
  
and white armor looks in the direction of another pod.  
  
"I have no idea. Maybe we'll just look for these Metroids  
  
and challenge them to battle." The third one pipes in.  
  
"I say we go for that chick!" The short one gets a funny  
  
look and the one in the pod on the left responds.  
  
"That chick?"  
  
"You know! That chick! (Taking off of Baku from FF9) The one  
  
who creamed the space pirates and Frieza's grandfather like  
  
they were nothing!" The left one looks out the window of the  
  
pod.  
  
"Oh...THAT chick...you mean Sammos...Samoos...uh..." The short  
  
one looks toward both pods and sits back.  
  
"Samus Aran, you oaf. Personally, if she defeated Artic, then  
  
she's not one to trifle with. She way outclasses us. Now,  
  
can we please keep the chatter to a minimum, we're still hot in  
  
Ginyu territory, and I don't want the Elite 5 spotting us!"  
  
"Sorry, Vegeta." The other two reply as the three race off out  
  
of the borders of the planet trade and spot the 'Pork Roast'.  
  
"Hmm...maybe a little rendezvous wouldn't hurt..." Vegeta and  
  
the other two turn course and head for the 'Pork Roast', flying  
  
toward the docking bay.  
  
----------------------  
  
Samus and the others had been alerted to the presence of the  
  
three pods approaching, which after being hailed said that  
  
they weren't going to attack, although the ship might get  
  
damaged because of the landing. They had borne witness  
  
to all three hitting the ground, bouncing once, and hitting  
  
the ground again, skidding into an inflatable wall that  
  
Hardy ordered set up. Once the wall was deflated, the pods  
  
opened. Vegeta was the first one to step out.  
  
"Nappa! Radditz!" Samus watched as two burly men, one a  
  
foot taller than the other, and each having a wild contrast  
  
of hair. (Nappa bald with a mustache, and Radditz having hair  
  
that was black but as big as though he was SSJ3.) Samus turns  
  
her glance to Vegeta.  
  
"...Who are you then, Shorty?" Vegeta takes a step back.  
  
He was insulted and enraged, but didn't dare attack. His  
  
Scouter had picked up that the power level of Samus was  
  
around 20 times his...too bad he didn't know that it was  
  
Samus.  
  
"How dare you! I'm Vegeta, Prince of the Saiya-jins! And  
  
I'm not short! They're just taller!" Samus walks forward  
  
and sees that Vegeta is half-a-head shorter than her.  
  
"If you're smaller 'n me, you're short." Vegeta's pale  
  
face went scarlet.  
  
"I'M NOT SHORT!" Nappa tries to stifle a laugh.  
  
"Laugh it up, you stupid-" Samus puts a hand on Vegeta's  
  
shoulder.  
  
"That's enough, Vegeta. I was only pulling your tail,  
  
and from the looks of it, that hurt." Vegeta gives a  
  
funny look in the direction of Nappa and Radditz and  
  
whirls around to see the business end of Samus' Power  
  
Suit aimed at his head.  
  
"Uh...okay, fine, touch me all you want, then. But  
  
don't call me sho-oh!" Samus grabs Vegeta by the hand  
  
and leads him to the bridge. Nappa and Radditz follow  
  
at a distance where Vegeta couldn't hear them laughing  
  
at the situation that he got himself into. Hardy  
  
looks at Samus holding Vegeta, and turns to walk toward  
  
the two of them.  
  
"Ah, welcome aboard the 'Pork Roast'! I'm the commander  
  
of this ship, Chief of Police, James Hardy!" Vegeta  
  
looks at Hardy in bewildered irritation.  
  
"And you're fat, so what?" Hardy smiles.  
  
"That all you could think of? 'Fat' is a compliment to the  
  
students of Kar-Umo." Vegeta's anger drained into fear.  
  
Now he knew how they could possibly defeat the Icers.  
  
Kar-Umo was the art of the 'Undefeated Of The Center', Ocho  
  
Heidegger of Centra. This was the 'fatzo' that Aku'Hokky  
  
said defeated him and won the last Federation Tournament of  
  
Fighters. But Aku'Hokky wasn't half as insulted by his loss  
  
as he was at Hardy plagarizing his attack as the 'Aku-Hardy  
  
Special'. This fat guy was no one to mess with, either.  
  
"...Just how many powerful fighters are -in- the Federation?!"  
  
Hardy looks at Vegeta.  
  
"Me. Samus. Ryu. Houston...uh...Kefka..." Vegeta turned  
  
white as a bleached sheet. This was VERY bad news. The Kefka  
  
was there.  
  
"Th-th-th-th-th-The Kefka?!" Moments later, Kefka Apparates  
  
onto the scene.  
  
"I hear my naaame? Who caaalled?" Vegeta tore away from  
  
Samus just as Nappa and Radditz entered, watching Vegeta  
  
run away screaming.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! THE KEFKA!!!!" Nappa turns around,  
  
Kefka folds her arms.  
  
"Well, if that isn't the rudest...wait, that was Vegeta. I  
  
scared him witless when he was 7, and he hasn't forgotten."  
  
Nappa and Radditz fall over a pair of crates, as they were  
  
laughing about that so much that they didn't pay attention  
  
to where they were going. Samus looks at the both of them  
  
and helps Nappa up.  
  
"That scene's one for my video scrapbook." 


	12. Mad Doctor Getaway!

Chapter 12: Mad Doctor Getaway!  
  
Akyasuma was trapped like a hamster in a plastic ball.  
  
He didn't think that the Federation would be so thorough  
  
in containing him...for once, the police weren't lazy or  
  
idiotic. They had arrested the one person who was number  
  
one on their wanted list for ever since Hardy became the  
  
Chief of Police. Now they didn't have a humoungous  
  
distraction to stare them in the face. Now they could  
  
start doing the job that they were supposed to do, but  
  
there were still a few incompetents that Hardy noticed.  
  
Hardy, however, wasn't one of those officers. He goofed  
  
off and ate more than he had done his job, true, but he had  
  
always done his job right. Unlike a few other officers who  
  
kept on throwing case papers into the shredder and couldn't  
  
shoot straight with even a dinky holdout gun. Hardy had  
  
been looking through his employee reports for three weeks  
  
to weed out the bad cops and had found and fired 15  
  
officers. A couple of them, since he was eating during his  
  
checks, asked that he re-review them to make sure that an  
  
accidental sauce blob didn't drop onto the papers and make  
  
something look like it wasn't supposed to. He thanked them  
  
for the concern of their employment and would give them two  
  
weeks to improve, although the papers were not errored by  
  
any sauces from his BBQ BLT's.  
  
Akyasuma couldn't even try to escape, all his built-in tools  
  
were locked down by The Kefka, so not even a passcode lock  
  
could be cracked. The cell had no bars to saw off or bend,  
  
and the walls were too strong for him to break through,  
  
since, even if he was a robot, his configuration was that of  
  
an old man. He thought that his odds of escape were next to  
  
impossible, but he didn't know that he had backup  
  
approaching.  
  
-----------------  
  
It was on the news that the Icers had hailed Samus and the  
  
Federation as heroes for uncovering and arresting Akyasuma  
  
and destroying every last vestige of the X. The planet  
  
trade's dimplomatic connections with the Icers was severed,  
  
and they had formed a new treaty not just between themselves  
  
and the Federation, but also between their nearby neighbors  
  
and long-time rivals, the Gennom, since now no longer the  
  
ruling family of the Icers existed, they could finally act  
  
more civilized to each other.  
  
Samus didn't want to attend celebrations, and neither did  
  
Royce. Houston and Ryu went to the parade being held  
  
to be on the float of the 'Pork Roast' that was made.  
  
Samus had a laugh at the paper mache Hardy that was on it  
  
as well. Looked like he was so busy that they had to make  
  
a substitute. Hardy had complained about the paper clone  
  
being twice his size.  
  
Ryu made the joke that 'TV does make you fatter', maybe  
  
not because of Hardy, but because of the buffet restaurant  
  
that they went to. Ryu didn't think that he ate THAT  
  
much, but his waistline was what he thought was huge when he  
  
watched the televised version. Samus cracked up at the both  
  
of them as they had set up an argument of fat jokes at each  
  
other. What made her laugh even more was that Ryu did  
  
still have a bit of a leftover belly at the time. (It really  
  
took the cake for her when Houston turned the radio on and  
  
the song playing was Cartman and Ju-C singing "Fat".)  
  
-------------------  
  
Another reason for the celebrations was that it was the  
  
momentous day of a new planet-bound people joining the  
  
fold of the Federation before heading out to space as  
  
their next goal. Bulma had a speech ready for the occasion,  
  
and had even given mention of being able to sell the products  
  
of Capsule Corp. across the galaxy. Things that several  
  
people had never seen in the Federation before until their  
  
introduction at a demonstration that Bulma held the day before.  
  
The introduction to at least one of the Saiya-jin (Goku as a  
  
child), had spurred Capsule Corp's. semi-development of space  
  
travel when the pod Goku crashed in was discovered.  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen of the Federation, I as you know, am  
  
Bulma Breifs, daughter of the CEO of Capsule Corporation,  
  
and the current emissary of the planet that you know as Green.  
  
I am here on request of the commitee's approval of the addition  
  
of Green to the Federation while our space travel technology is  
  
still semi-developed. We have been waiting for a chance to  
  
prove our capabilities in this field, and don't know where we  
  
should choose for the destination. After consideration of where  
  
our proving grounds will be, I have decided that Alpha Centauri  
  
Station shall be the point of arrival for our first spaceship."  
  
Bulma pauses for a moment. Seeing that everyone is silent at  
  
the time, she continues.  
  
"You are all aware of what plans that I have had in mind for  
  
Capsule Corporation if we are accepted. Your decision will  
  
be the influence of Green becoming a fully-developed planet  
  
that much faster. I hope that your decision will be yes,  
  
but all I can do is hope. Thank you for your time in letting  
  
me share my message." Bulma exited the chamber with applause  
  
ringing through the hallway outside the chamber. The applause  
  
died down so that Keaton could speak.  
  
"And now, for you, the members of the Federation commitee, to  
  
decide whether you will accept this new world's people to be  
  
part of us."  
  
-------------------  
  
Bulma was looking to the left and right, and sometimes behind  
  
the table that she was sitting at in the restaurant for Goku.  
  
She wanted to tell him about what was going on, and that she  
  
was still worried about it, but instead she saw Hardy walk in.  
  
"Miss Bulma? The Chairman would like you to have this." Hardy  
  
holds up a document sealed in a plaque. On it, in very verbose  
  
terms, was the approval of the Federation for Green to be a  
  
legal part of the Federation. She was fumbling in her bag for  
  
a videophone that she had bought the week before to call her  
  
father and tell him.  
  
"Dad? DAD?! Pick up will you?" Mr. Breifs appears on the  
  
screen.  
  
"Oh! Hello, Bulma! Would you like to hear a funny joke that  
  
I just read on the paper?" Bulma gets a serious face. "It  
  
looks like you might need a brightening to your day!"  
  
"No thanks, Dad, look!" She holds the plaque to the screen  
  
and then lowers it so he can see her face. "It's bright enough  
  
as it is for today, we've been sanctioned by the Federation as  
  
a fully-developed planet!"  
  
"Oh, good! I've got just the people to send over there for the  
  
test of our spaceship!"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Tien and Chiaotzu. They came by asking where Goku and Piccolo  
  
were, and when he didn't see you, he even asked about you. So,  
  
I told them where you were, and they went on their merry way  
  
after putting on the special suits that I gave them."  
  
"THEY ALREADY LEFT?! Did you tell them how to get here?"  
  
"No." Bulma scowls and yells.  
  
"THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET HERE?! THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT OF  
  
SENDING THEM OFF SO QUICKLY?! DAD, YOU'RE SUCH AN ABSENT-  
  
MINDED-" Mr. Breifs lit up.  
  
"You're right! I forgot that I put the ship on auto-navigation!  
  
The course was already set, all that they had to do was start the  
  
ship and off they went! So I had no need to tell them." Bulma  
  
calms down a bit but still has an agitated face.  
  
"Even so, you should still be navigator in case something goes  
  
wrong, so why not go do that. Later!" She turns the phone off  
  
and walks out of the restaurant. "Hardy, right? I'm going to  
  
look for Goku. He should have been here by now." Hardy looks  
  
in her direction with a partly blank face as she leaves.  
  
"Who-koo?"  
  
-----------------  
  
A smaller IcSaucer ship sails at Alpha Centauri, passing by  
  
the Capsule Corp. prototype only for a moment before it sails  
  
ahead at a faster speed. An Icer much in the appearance of  
  
Freiza (sans the girly voice, as this one's was halfway to the  
  
tone of King Cold.) looks out the window.  
  
"Now it's time for the ones who are loyal to Akyasuma to  
  
rule over the rebellious ignorants, and I, Amroth, shall  
  
be the strongest in the universe..."  
  
-----------------  
  
Goku was animatedly talking to Samus about all the misadventures  
  
that he had while he was a child. A shape-shifting pig saving  
  
the world by wishing for panties, his battles at the very first  
  
World Martial Arts tournament that he had gone to, his encounter  
  
with the Red Ribbon Army while searching for the Dragonball that  
  
his adopted grandfather gave him, and many other things. He had  
  
even told her about the Dragonballs and the power that they held  
  
when all seven were gathered.  
  
"Hey. I'll bet you'd like to be stronger. Since you're training  
  
with weighted clothes, why not go to the gravity chamber on the  
  
ground floor? It was originally meant for Ryu, but it's not a  
  
private thing." Just after she had finished talking, a knock was  
  
at her door. Goku answered it to see Radditz appear in the  
  
doorway.  
  
"Hello, Kakkarotto. It's probably coincidence that we met here."  
  
Samus stands up.  
  
"Oh yeah! Goku, this is Radditz." Goku makes a motion to shake  
  
Radditz's hand, who accepts.  
  
"Ow, you're strong! That grip kinda hurts!" Radditz chuckles.  
  
"Well then, Kakkarotto, it looks like you'll have to train more.  
  
After all, if you want to be stronger than your big brother, you  
  
have a lot ahead of you!" Radditz laughs and Goku's face acclaims  
  
shock.  
  
"I HAVE A BROTHER!?" Radditz stifles his laughter for a moment.  
  
"You're looking at him right now..." He continues to chuckle.  
  
Goku's shock wears off slightly as Bulma walks up the stairs.  
  
Radditz, having his guard off, gets shoved out of the doorway  
  
a ways while Goku grabs his hand and pulls him to Bulma.  
  
"Hey, Bulma! I'd like you to meet my older brother!"  
  
"We were supposed to meet at the restaurant that we all planned  
  
on being at!" Goku looks at Bulma with his usual happy face.  
  
"Oh, you already knew about him?" Bulma looks at Goku funny.  
  
"Him who?" Goku points to Radditz. "No, I don't know him."  
  
"He's my older brother! Uh...what was your name again?"  
  
Radditz stumbles.  
  
"It's Radditz, Kakka...er...Goku."  
  
-------------------  
  
Chi-Chi, Gohan, Goku, Radditz, Bulma, and Hardy all sat down at  
  
the table of the Fratze Rateau, a restaurant with a weird name  
  
and an all-you-can-eat buffet. Guess which three wanted to hold  
  
an eating contest? Vegeta and Nappa entered to see Hardy faring  
  
rather well against two bottomless pit warriors at one of the  
  
things he does best: eating. Nappa walks up to the table.  
  
"Hey, Radditz! Who ya with?" Radditz turns around and points  
  
out everyone.  
  
"This is Bulma, you know Hardy, my younger brother Goku, his  
  
son Gohan, and his wife, Chi-Chi." Vegeta approaches Radditz  
  
from the other side.  
  
"You're younger brother is Kakkarotto, Radditz!"  
  
"Yeah, but they call him Goku, so..." Nappa grabs Goku's left  
  
hand and shakes him up and down.  
  
"Nice to meet you, Gokarotto...er...Kakkaku...uhm..." Nappa  
  
lets go and scratches his bald head.  
  
"Kakkarotto or Goku...but please, not both at once...it sounds  
  
weird."  
  
--------------------  
  
Piccolo balances on the point of a skyscraper inside the main  
  
city of the station. His mind and senses scan everything for  
  
an abnormality, and he pictures how to handle each one.  
  
An explosion. He felt the light shock and heard it in the  
  
distance. He hadn't anticipated this. He flew off to the  
  
source to find several planet trade troopers attacking the  
  
prison area. This wasn't good. There was someone that had  
  
to stay in there or else there was going to be trouble. But  
  
Piccolo wasn't a good person, either. He wanted to kill  
  
Goku for defeating him twice, once as Piccolo Daimaou, the  
  
other time at the last tournament that Goku had gone to.  
  
Kami went to that tournament to stop Piccolo once and for  
  
all, but got caught in his own trap that he had in mind.  
  
If trouble was what these guys wanted to cause, then he  
  
could probably get Goku's attention and possibly destroy  
  
him also in the midst of this. Piccolo ran to the cell  
  
that held Akyasuma and blasted the door. The old robot  
  
peeked out of the doorway and hobbled off with two of  
  
Amroth's soldiers after they found him. Piccolo was given  
  
a case with money in it, probably a pay for his unexpected  
  
services. That was it? Goku wouldn't pick onto an incident  
  
as small as that. He left before any of the Federation  
  
officers arrived, and the only thing that they saw of the  
  
scene was Piccolo's handiwork, not even knowing who did it  
  
or how.  
  
"It looks like things are gonna get interesting..." Hardy  
  
said to the other two that he was with. "It looks like it  
  
is gonna be..." Hardy drew the sentence out slowly, nodding.  
  
"...one of those days..."  
  
Fin  
  
To Be Continued 


End file.
